Many countries, including micro nations, have authorized the minting of coins bearing the Olympic Rings and/or an artist's rendition of an Olympic Event. I will reveal a few of those coins in this Post starting with some in my personal collection. Mind you, I don't have a camera or a scanner so the photos of the Olympic Commemoratives will not be of those in my actual possession, but from the archives of Don's World Coin Gallery. 1983 P W/BOX AND COA: http://www.worldcoingallery.com/countries/commems/us-209.html 1984 P: http://www.worldcoingallery.com/countries/commems/us-210.html 1988 P: http://www.worldcoingallery.com/countries/commems/us-222.html Here's photos of Olympic Coins I don't own, from foreign mints: Bhutan authorized this SILVER 300 NGULTRUMS COMMEMORATING THE 1992 Olympics: http://www.worldcoingallery.com/countries/coine_cs.php?image=nmc5/21-74&desc=Bhutan%20km74%20300%20Ngultrums%20(1992)%20Speed%Skating&src=Andrej%20Smrdu&query=Bhutan%20Skating Canada struck many Olympic Subject coins. Here's a few 25 Cents Olympic commemoratives (photos courtesy of Don's World Coin Gallery): 2007 COINS: http://www.worldcoingallery.com/cou...5 Cents (2007) Olympic Curling &query=Curling http://www.worldcoingallery.com/cou...s (2007) Olympic%Ice Hockey &query=Ice Hockey http://www.worldcoingallery.com/cou...686 25 Cents% (2007) Olympics Downhill Skiing 2008 COINS: http://worldcoingallery.com/countri...s (2008) Figure Skating &query=Figure Skating http://worldcoingallery.com/countri...ss-country Skiing &query=Cross country Skiing Here's two photos of Canadian Dollars bearing Olympic themes: 2004: http://worldcoingallery.com/countri...13 1 Dollar (2004) Olympic Rings&query=km 513 2006: http://worldcoingallery.com/countri...lympic Rings, flying loon&query=olympic rings Here's two more photos (courtesy of Don's World Coin Gallery) which reveal the Olympic Theme on Silver $5 Coins: 1974: http://worldcoingallery.com/countri... Olympic Rings&src=Han van Hattum&query=km 89 http://worldcoingallery.com/countri...hlete w/ Torch&src=Han van Hattum&query=km 90 The following photos of selected Olympic Subject Coins authorized by countries other then North America are courtesy of Coin Archives. Here's a Chinese Gold 1000 Yuan "Year of the Horse" coin bearing our selected theme (Olympics): Read the Text! http://www.coinarchives.com/w/lotviewer.php?LotID=689053&AucID=501&Lot=2549 How about this1980 250 Yuan with a Cameo surface? http://www.coinarchives.com/w/lotviewer.php?LotID=711324&AucID=522&Lot=1972 Maybe one or all of these Bosnia and Herzegovina issues are more to your liking: http://www.coinarchives.com/w/lotviewer.php?LotID=711288&AucID=522&Lot=1936 http://www.coinarchives.com/w/lotviewer.php?LotID=711289&AucID=522&Lot=1937 http://www.coinarchives.com/w/lotviewer.php?LotID=711290&AucID=522&Lot=1938 Here's Greece's contribution to our subject matter: http://www.coinarchives.com/w/lotviewer.php?LotID=711506&AucID=522&Lot=2154 What about that little Island, Samoa? http://www.coinarchives.com/w/lotviewer.php?LotID=711609&AucID=522&Lot=2257 Would you like to see Yeman's Olympic coin? http://www.coinarchives.com/w/lotviewer.php?LotID=711671&AucID=522&Lot=2319 Guess what? All I've shown you are modern Olympic Coins. I hope the following pics and text pleasantly suprise you as much as they suprised me! Read the text! Click photos for enlargement! http://www.coinarchives.com/a/lotviewer.php?LotID=259167&AucID=382&Lot=22 http://www.coinarchives.com/a/lotviewer.php?LotID=256940&AucID=377&Lot=1102 Here's a photo of the last Olympic coin in this week's post: http://www.coinarchives.com/a/lotviewer.php?LotID=256940&AucID=377&Lot=1102 Hope you enjoyed the view... Clinker
Most people are aware of the ¥100 and ¥1000 silver Japanese coins commemorating the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, and perhaps the ¥100 commemorating the 1972 Sapporo Winter Olympics, but did you know that 3 gold ¥10,000 coins head up the extensive 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics collection? Some were issued in 1997 in contemplation of the games.
Nice info. I didn't know so many countries issued them. I knew about the US, Canada, and China. but non of the others. I also know that the Soviet Union did too (for the 1980 game in Moscow)
To Magman: A lot of ancient Olympic Coinage bore the Goddess Olympia (there were many) on them. Most modern Olympic coins (also many) feature a single Olympic event and some renditions are very modernistic in design. Thanks for reading and commenting...:thumb: Clinker
This is the very first "Olympics" coin, I think (apart from ancients ), issued in Finland for the games in Helsinki 1952: http://worldcoingallery.com/countries/nmc2/68-35.jpg And since you mentioned Greece, let me add that apart from the gold coin (and a few silver pieces) the 2004 Olympics in Athens were also the occasion to issue the very first commemorative €2 coin: http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/images/image8423.gif Here are two pieces that do not feature the Olympic rings but tell an odd story. They commemorate the 1972 Olympics in Munich, and the first issue (there were six) says "Games of the XX Olympiad in Germany". However, back then there was no "Germany" but two. The GDR (East G.) objected, saying that officially the host of the Olympics is a city, not a country. So the first issue had to come in a second variety, this time saying "... in Munich". The other issues use the city name too. Christian
They didn't at first, only the host country issued Olympic coins. Then eventually they began to realize that collectors were suckers and more and more countries began issuing them. Even countries that had no real connection to the games began issuing whole series of Olympic NCLT, and in multi year sets instead of just the year of the games.
