Just forget the words and sing along

Wednesday, February 28, 2007

The Olympic Coins!

Remember a few weeks ago, I was blogging about how the Royal Canadian Mint is coming out with a whole slew of commemerative quarters and loonies celebrating the Vancouver Olympics in 2010? Well, in case you missed the news, the first one came out last Friday. So, start scanning your change for the first Olympic quarter, which commemerates...curling!

In fact, over at the official Royal Canadian Mint website, they've got the whole list of when the quarters come out, and what they commemerate:

February 2007 - Curling

April 2007 - Hockey

July 2007 - Wheelchair Curling

September 2007 - Biathalon

October 2007 - Alpine Skiing

February 2008 - Snowboarding

April 2008 - Freestyle Skiing

September 2008 - Figure Skating

October 2008 - Bobsled

February 2009 - Speed Skating

April 2009 - Cross County Skiing

June 2009 - Sledge Hockey

Also in that mix are the two Lucky Loonies.

July 2008 - A loon taking flight from an olive bush. Of course, it comes out just in time for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

December 2009 - The official commemerative loonie of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. It has on it, naturally, the 2010 Winter Olympics Logo.

All these coins are being released at Royal Banks and at Petro-Canadas. Of course, if you can't wait 3 years to get the whole set, you can actully buy the whole set RIGHT NOW at the Royal Canadian Mint's online store. The whole set, and the fancy board to collect them in, will set you back $30.

And here's something I just learned. Did you know that the Royal Canadian Mint has issued commemerative coins for every Olympics held in Canada? These coins are never put into circulation...they're sold only to collectors, with the proceeds going towards the Olympics. It's how the mint chips in on Olympic fundraising.

Another tradition is that these coins have a face value that no Canadian coin has had before. the 1976 commemerative coins had face values of $5 and $10...1988 had $20...and the Vancouver ones will have $25 values.

Wikipedia has all you need to know

No comments: