Japan will issue a new colorized Hokkaido commemorative silver coin featuring Japanese red-crowned cranes, a symbol of Hokkaido, flying above Hokkaido’s Lake Toya.

Japan’s Finance Minister, Fukushiro Nukaga, made the announcement Tuesday in a press conference after a cabinet meeting. Mr. Nukaga said a 1,000-yen Hokkaido commemorative coin would be issued this July in time for the Group of Eight summit, which will be held in Hokkaido.

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The Austrian Mint celebrates the 100th anniversary of the birth of Herbert von Karajan, a 20th century musical giant, with a new nine-sided silver commemorative coin minted in Special Uncirculated and Circulation quality.

This year Herbert von Karajan would have celebrated his 100th birthday. He was born on 5th April, 1908, in the city of Salzburg. To commemorate this great Austrian conductor the Austrian Mint in Vienna is issuing a 5 Euro silver coin on 7th May, 2008.

On the occasion of his death in 1989 the New York Times characterised Karajan as “probably the world’s best-known conductor and one of the most powerful figures in classical music.”

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The Royal Canadian Mint (RCM) has announced they will unveil and issue $2 circulating coins Wednesday to honour the 400th anniversary of the City of Quebec’s founding.

The public is invited to participate in the ceremonial event and presentation of the coins on Wednesday, May 7. The public may also exchange old coins for the new $2 commemorative coin honouring the city.

When the Mint initially announced the 400th Anniversary of Quebec City coin, Ian E. Bennett, President and CEO of the RCM stated:

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The Royal Australian Mint has released a special one dollar coin featuring a detector dog on duty to mark the centenary of Australian Quarantine.

The Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service (AQIS) is responsible for protecting Australia’s borders from exotic pets and diseases. AQIS also provides import and export inspection to support access to overseas markets.

The special uncirculated coin acknowledges the work and commitment of AQIS in protecting Australia’s unique environment and our multi-million dollar agricultural and tourism industries. The success of these quarantine practices has resulted in Australia remaining free from many of the world’s worst agriculture pests and diseases.

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New, and ancient, commemorative coins to celebrate Israel’s 60th anniversary

This copyrighted article was written by Moti Bassok and was republished with the permission of Haaretz.

Coin collectors can celebrate the 60th anniversary of the State of Israel with limited numbers of new commemorative coins: in one-, two- and 10-shekel denominations.

The modern coins were designed by Ruben Nutels, and symbolize the achievements of the state in its first 60 years, and express optimism about a future of peace and prosperity.

The coins bear a pomegranate to symbolize fertility and plenty, alongside a dove and an olive branch, the signs of peace.

The Israel Government Coins and Medals Corporation (IGCMC) has also issued two silver replicas of ancient Jewish coins in honor of the upcoming 60th Independence Day.

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Japan’s Ministry of Finance plans to issue 500-yen (five dollar) coins commemorating the centenary of the Japanese immigration to Brazil, but a copyright disagreement regarding the initial coin design has caused a slight bump in the road.

The disputed coin design showed an image of the “Commemoration Statue in the Santos Port”, a monument built by a local association, the “Federation of the Associations of Provinces of Japan in Brazil”. The monument includes bronze sculptures of parents and a child standing in Santos, Brazil, the location where Japanese immigrants landed in 1908 after two months of voyage.

Japan had already minted 4.8 million of the Japan-Brazil Year of Exchange commemorative coins believing an agreement in place with the association covered the rights to reproduce the design. However, it was later learned that a Brazilian artist who Japan had no agreement with also held a copyright to the design.

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Nine-year-old Alexander Granhof and his grandfather Jens have made what is believed to be the largest ever find in southern Sweden of silver coins from the Middle Ages.

Alexander and his granddad were out exploring the site of the Battle of Lund (1676) when the boy happened on some silver coins coated in verdigris. The buried treasure had likely come to the surface when the field in which they were wandering was recently plowed.

A day later, archaeologists from the National Heritage Board arrived at the site with metal detectors and were quickly able to find two clay vessels containing more than 7,000 silver coins dating from around 1300 AD.

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The National Bank of Poland (NBP) has launched a new two-zloty coin for collectors commemorating the Polish town of Bielsko-Biala. The commemorative is the final coin released within the ‘Historic Polish Towns’ collector coin series. Thirty-one previous historic town coins have been released.

The two-zloty commemorative coin has a mintage limit of 1.1 million and is composed of Nordic Gold, which is mostly copper.

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Anne of Green Gables™, Milk Delivery, Dinosaur Triceratops, Agriculture Trade, Purple Saxifrage, De Havilland Beaver, Downy Woodpecker, Canada Day Kid’s Activity and Coin Set, and Vancouver 2010 Magnetic Pin and Sport Coin mark the second series of 2008 Royal Canadian Mint collector coins now available.

The Royal Canadian Mint is pleased to announce that adoring fans of Anne of Green Gables can now purchase the widely anticipated 25-cent collector coin bearing the colourfully painted image of the spirited heroine created by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery exactly 100 years ago.

Coin collectors and gift givers alike can also look into the Mint’s newest offerings to find other exciting products, such as a triangular silver 50-cent Milk Delivery Coin, whose green enamel effect mimics the colourful variety of the milk tokens of our past, a new $4 silver dinosaur collection coin featuring Triceratops, the latest addition to the 99999 pure gold provincial flowers series, the first-ever fine silver edition of the popular gold Historical Commerce series, honouring agriculture, and a set of fun magnetic Vancouver 2010 Winter Games sports coin pins.

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The National Bank of Poland (NBP) has released three historical and exceptionally well designed coins commemorating the 65th anniversary of the 1943 Jewish Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.

The commemorative coins include new two-zlotys minted in Nordic Gold (mostly copper) with a mintage level of 1.75 million, proof silver 20-zlotys with a limited mintage of 14,500 and proof gold 200-zlotys with a mintage of 12,000 coins.

The two zloty coin features barbed wire in the shape of the Star of David and the face of a girl wearing a beret on the reverse.

The 20-zlotys coins depict the Star of David against a brick wall backdrop on the reverse and a tree, and the other side will show loose bricks and flames surrounding the Polish eagle.

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