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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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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House and Senate members have been cracking the whip when it comes to introducing commemorative coin legislation. This year alone there have been a half dozen bills thrown into the mix that would create commemorative silver dollar coins. And that’s with just a few months into the year.

To place some perspective on the quantity of bills, only two commemorative coins may be released in a single year. As such, there is an underlying competitive aspect to each commemorative coin bill.

Outside commemorative coin talk in Congress, legislation has been introduced that would change the composition of coins to make them less expensive to mint. With the price of copper, the cost to produce the penny and nickel has exceeded their face value for some time.

There is also a new proposal to recreate the famous Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle coin in palladium, a precious metal that is less expensive than gold.

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A new House bill recently introduced to celebrate the centennial of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) with the minting of a commemorate silver dollar has exceptionally strong bipartisan support.

Rep Pete Sessions [R-TX] introduced the new bill on April 22, 2008. The bill looks to be soundly popular with an already 296 cosponsors lined up to provide their early signature for the "100 Years of Scouting" commemorative coin.

Rep. Sessions commented,

“Boy Scouts are a significant part of American culture, shaping the values, citizenship, and skills of millions of young men,” Sessions stated. “As an Eagle Scout with four generations of Boy Scouts in my family, I strongly value the Boy Scouts’ history of instilling a sense of duty to God, country, and self.”

Not altogether surprising, in the 110th Congress, 248 members of the House of Representative and the Senate have participated in Boy Scouts of America as Scouts or adult leaders.

The bill, H.R. 5872, is entitled the Boy Scouts of America Centennial Commemorative Coin Act and calls for 350,000 silver $1 coins to be minted in 2010. The collector coin would contain 90% silver and 10% copper.

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If two U.S. senators have their way, in a few years you may be giving your mother a silver coin for Mother’s Day rather than the traditional card, flowers or candy. They propose a commemorative silver dollar to celebrate the event.

Senator Jay Rockefeller [D-WV] and Senator Robert C. Byrd [WV], the longest serving senator in history at age 90, introduced a new bill on April 17, 2008 that seeks the creation of a commemorative silver dollar to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Mother’s Day.

The bill, S. 2883, is entitled the Mother’s Day Centennial Commemorative Coin Act and calls for 400,000 silver $1 coins to be minted in 2014 — six years into the future.

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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 Abbey of Klosterneuburg coins are the 5th minted in the Austrian Mint’s silver commemorative series “Great Abbeys of Austria”

When one travels down the Danube, whether by river or by land, just before reaching Vienna one encounters the town of Klosterneuburg nestling around the ancient abbey on the heights overlooking the Danube Valley. Since the year 1114 canons regular have been living here according to the Rule of St. Augustine.

This abbey is the fifth coin in the Austrian Mint’s silver series “Great Abbeys of Austria” and will be issued on 16th April, 2008.

The Augustinian abbey of Klosterneuburg was founded in 1114 by Margrave Leopold III (who was subsequently canonised and ranks as the patron saint of Austria). The famous legend is that Leopold’s wife, Agnes, lost a precious scarf in the wind which Leopold himself found some years later while hunting.

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