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The Royal Canadian Mint has now issued the first commemorative, circulating coin for the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
In a canny move, the Mint officially released the coin, which features a female curler, at the 2007 Women’s Curling Championship, the Scott Tournament of Hearts, in Lethbridge, Alberta, on February 21, 2007. The coin begins circulating on 23 February 2007.
Vancouver sports artist Glen Green designed the distinctive Olympic Curling Quarter, which shows a female curler with rock and broom, in front of a half outlined maple leaf symbol, next to the lower case denomination 25 cents, and above the Olympic designation, vancouver 2010, on the tails side of the coin.
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The head side of the coin shows a shrunken head portrait of the Queen, also by Vancouver artist Susanna Blunt, beneath the words CANADA ELIZABETH II, next to the Vancouver 2010 inukshuk Olympic symbol, and above the current year date of 2007.
Purists will note that the Latin designation D.G. Regina, for Queen by the Grace of God, has been left off the new coin. The last time this happened, way back in 1911, it caused a furor, and collectors still refer to the 1911 series as Godless Obverse coins.
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22 million of the Olympic Curling quarters are meant to circulate. No doubt, curlers will soon be embedding them into the ice for luck. Made for circulation Olympic coins have not previously been issued for Canadian held Games.
Commemorative circulating coins are a great way to promote awareness of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics and the associated sports. Fittingly, Olympic curling began as a demonstration sport at the 1988 Winter Olympics, held in Calgary, Alberta. Curling was fully incorporated into the Winter Olympics, in the Nagano, Japan games of 1998. The Canadian Men’s and Women’s Olympic Curling teams have won medals in all the Winter Olympics since then and are expected to do well in Vancouver/Whistler when the games are held there in 2010.
Currently, the Olympic coins are not available for sale to the United States. Please check back soon!
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