Brandywine Krause Publications COTY Collection (1982-Present)

关于此套币: I was looking for a new collecting challenge a couple years ago and decided that world coins were the direction I wanted to move into because of a number of reasons. I researched several World Registry Sets that would be a potential new endeavor for me to pursue.

I came across the Krause Coin of the Year Set with no prior knowledge of the annual contest. I was intrigued by this set for a number of reasons:

1.) The size of this collection is very large and I figured that alone would keep me busy for a couple years.
2.) The low mintage numbers of many of the coins in this set - with several coins having a total mintage of several HUNDRED coins minted
3.) The growing reputation of the Coin of the Year selection process
4.) The diversity of the origins of these coins
5.) The absolute beauty and craftsmanship of many of the coins

I've also read many of the criticisms of these coins: "gaudy", "gimmicky", "too commercial", and "NCLT". However, I would bet that many of these critics have only seen pictures of these coins and not actually seen the actual coin. We all know that having the physical coin in our hands looks much differently than pictures. I have been very pleasantly surprised at how beautiful many of these coins actually are and how differently they appear compared to pictures. I'll be the first to admit that not all are beautiful but I tell myself they are from a different culture that may look at their beauty differently than I do.

As far as the size of the collection, I took a very disciplined and methodical approach to amass such a large number of coins. Most of the coins in my set were purchased raw and submitted to PCGS for inclusion in this set. As a result, many of the coins came with their OGP, which was an added treat for me as I like to take in the whole picture. I read a quote by someone who stated that this is a relatively easy collection to assemble and that most coins in this set are readily available on the coin market - I had to laugh because obviously this individual has not made an attempt to assemble this collection himself. Yes - there is low hanging fruit with high mintage numbers that are easy to acquire. However, I have spent countless hours in the pursuit of coins that have several hundred or less coins minted in this set and many have not been easy to come across. I have developed a reliable network of dealers across the world that have assisted with finding coins. There are several coins in this set that I wrote off early in this process because of their low mintage numbers and figuring they would be near impossible to find. Many of these coins were not easy or cheap to locate and there are still several more that are going to be hard to find but one thing I've learned on this journey is that nothing is impossible. Surprisingly, some of the remaining coins I need have relatively high mintage numbers but have been extremely hard to locate. The 2012 Finland, Helsinki World Design coin was one such example with a mintage of 5,000.

The best part of this collection has been seeing the craftsmanship, precision and presentation of many of these coins. Austria and Great Britain stand out as two mints that produce very beautify coins. The Pobjoy Mint is one that stands out in my mind as producing very precise coins that are well packaged. Sometimes less is more and there are several coins produced by the Franklin Mint in this set that are beautiful because of their simplicity. As far as the coins that some may feel are "gimmicky" because they are colorized or laser etched - I would tell you get over it because several countries have really perfected the process. Japan's 2006 1,000 yen 50th Anniversary of the UN is one such coin, as is Canada's 2006 Palladium $50 Ursa Major and Minor series.

I invite you to take a look at this collection before casting your judgement. If you want a challenging collection to assemble, I openly invite the competition. Each year, Krause Publications present awards that have become the ultimate international recognition for mints and central banks honoring the highest achievement in art, design and marketing.

A panel of judges, made up of numismatists and Members of the American Numismatic Association, Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee and authors,and editors choose nominees for the various categories from hundreds of coins received from around the world. These nominees are forwarded to an international panel of 80 judges consisting of mint officials, museum personnel, journalists and various experts. This international panel choose winners in each of 10 individual categories. A second round of balloting will select the overall Coin of the Year from among the category winners

Enjoy looking through this set!

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