Goosebumps moments at COTY
Normally, award ceremonies are most exciting for those hoping to win a prize. But the ceremony for the Coin of the Year Awards 2025 surprised everyone with emotional, spine-tingling moments.
Even though there are now many other awards for contemporary coins, the Coin of the Year Award (COTY) remains by far the most prestigious award that a mint can win for a new coin. The COTY has been awarded since 1984 by World Coin News magazine, which became part of the Active Media Group in June 2019. Until 2020, the COTY ceremony was held regularly as part of the Berlin World Money Fair, but since 2023, probably for cost reasons, it has been held again as part of the World’s Fair of Money. This is a shame, because there are significantly more mints in Berlin than at the ANA. This time, however, it did not matter much.
Head-to-head race between the Monnaie de Paris and the Austrian Mint
This year, the major mints dominated the event. Surprisingly, the Royal Canadian Mint was not among the winners this year. Instead, the Austrian Mint and the Monnaie de Paris were tied with three wins each. The Austrian Mint won in the categories: Most Historically Significant (Salt Mining), Best Bi-Metallic (Edaphon) and Most Artistic (Supernova).
The Monnaie de Paris also scored in three categories, namely Best Contemporary Event (Notre Dame Restoration), Best Circulating Coin (50 Cent Marie Curie) and Most Innovative Coin (Notre Dame – Microchip).
The small difference was made by the heavy ball, the prize for the best of the best, for the Coin Of The Year. Representatives of the Austrian Mint took this trophy home with them. They won with Supernova, a magnificent work of numismatic art that combines concave minting with elaborate colour printing and a polished plate.
The Best Gold prize went to the Vatican (War & Peace), while Best Silver went to Latvia (Cabbage). Germania Mint was delighted to receive the Best Crown award for Maltese Bee, a 10-dollar silver coin produced on behalf of Malta.
Goosebumps moment
Imagine you are a young artist who specialises in coins. Imagine further that you are sitting in the room where the COTY awards are being presented. You open the brochure with the winners – and there it is: the coin you designed yourself. That’s exactly what happened to Italian medallist Chiara Principe. She didn’t know that ‘her’ coin – Vatican, 50 Euro Gold ‘War & Peace’ – had won a Coty category; conversely, the Coty team didn’t know that the designer would be sitting in the audience. It was a moving moment when Tom Uram, who accepted the award on behalf of the absent Vatican representatives, spotted Chiara Principe in the audience and called her to the stage. She was allowed to hold the trophy in her hands – unfortunately only briefly and for a photo. Because actually, the trophy goes to the mint responsible for producing the coin. What a pity. There was probably no one in the hall who would not have liked to see the likeable Chiara take the trophy home with her for good.
Numismatic support for Ukraine
Ukraine was successful at the Coin of the Year Award for the third year in a row since the outbreak of war. In 2023 and 2024, it won the Best Contemporary Event category, and in 2023 it also won Most Artistic, thus winning the COTY.
Ukraine was also among the winners in 2025. It received the title Most Inspirational for its coin ‘The Country of Superheroes’. Donald Scarinci accepted the award on behalf of Ukraine. His speech ended with the words: ‘From the USA: Glory to Ukraine!’ It was a moving moment. Marc Schwartz, Director of the Monnaie de Paris, stood up to applaud. Soon, everyone present was on their feet applauding. It was a remarkable show of solidarity from the international numismatic community.
Lifetime Achievement Award 2025
The Lifetime Achievement Award is presented once a year by World Coin News and NumisMaster.com to a die engraver who has had a lasting impact on numismatics. This year, the award went to Luc Luycx. Every European is familiar with at least one of his works. After all, we hold it in our hands every day when we pay with euro coins. The national side of all euro coins was created by Luc Luycx.
Text and images: Ursula Kampmann
