The Gold Chervonets
COIN CONSTELLATION-2007: THE FIRST PANCAKE WAS NOT LUMPY
The 1st International Coin Competition of the countries of the CIS and the Baltic States “Coin Constellation-2007” has been accomplished. The winners have received their prizes. The Organizational Committee is getting ready to hold Coin Constellation-2008
It happened two years ago. The Watermark then started to form its Editorial Board. We were discussing this topic with the Central Bank of Armenia. And at odd moments the representatives of the Central Bank of Armenia offered, “Why don’t you hold a coin competition? Of coins issued in the CIS?” Today it is high time to thank the Bank of Armenia for this idea. Because the 1st Coin Competition of the countries of the CIS and the Baltic States “Coin Constellation-2007” has taken place. The winners have received their prizes, and the Organizers — “Watermark” Publishing House — useful advice on how to develop, extend and enrich the new Competition.
How it all began
Many things happened since the moment when we began to think about the coin competition seriously and till the decision to hold it. The Russian coin market started to spin up. Of course, so far it is not even possible to compare it to the European coin markets, for example, where dozens and hundreds thousand people gather collections of the modern coins, where at the coin exhibitions queues of those willing to enlarge their collections line up at the booths, where the coins have become a common product which can be bought, sold or given as a present.
But still, during the recent years there have appeared many more coins at the Russian market. Not because the Bank of Russia started issuing many more coins, but because foreign coins have appeared in the market. And people buy them — not so much for their collections, but as souvenirs and gifts. All the more so because a lot of the foreign coins surprised with their topic, shape and design.
Thus, the people received a cause to at least display their sound curiosity regarding commemorative coins.
In order to stimulate and increase this curiosity, we have started to issue a specialized magazine about coins — The Gold Chervonets.
And at the beginning of this year we have announced the competition of coins issued in the countries of the CIS and the Baltic States.
The rules
Sberbank of Russia endorsed the idea of the competition by becoming its General Sponsor. The competition was called “Coin Constellation”.
The rules were easy: any coin issued by the National Banks of the countries of the CIS and the Baltic States during the year of 2006 could participate in the competition. The National Banks, the mints as well as the Organizational Committee had the right to present coins for the competition. (And the Organizational Committee used its right, by the way. Moreover, one of the coins presented by the Organizational Committee was chosen the best in its category — but we will speak about it a little later).
There were 8 categories in the 1st Coin constellation — 2007 Competition: “the unique idea solution”, “the successful artistic solution”, “the original technology”, “the collection coin”, “for the contribution to the development of the market of precious metal coins”, “the silver coin of the year”, “the gold coin of the year”, “the coin of the year”, “for the contribution to the coins of precious metals market development”. The General Sponsor of the Competition — Sberbank of Russia — offered its own category — “the coin as the best gift”.
47 commemorative and jubilee coins from Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Trans-Dniester Republic, Russia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Estonia took part the Competition. The Competition Committee, which consisted of specialists in the numismatic field from the State Hermitage, the Russian Museum, the State History Museum, Russian auction houses (working with coins) as well as commercial banks representatives, evaluated the coins.
The voting was absentee — all the jury members received a package of materials with the images and descriptions of the coins taking part in the competition.
Who won
The results of the “Coin Constellation-2007” Competition were announced during the 2nd International Conference on Security Printing — the Watermark Conference, which took place in Suzdal. The conferment of the winners took place on June 28, 2007 at a special session dedicated to the Coin Constellation — 2007 Competition. The prizes were designed and produced in the creative stone-dressing workshop “Bagulnik” (the author is Sergey Falkin, a sculptor from Saint-Petersburg).
And though there were only 9 categories (including the one proposed by General Sponsor), there were 11 winners. First of all, two coins won one category. And secondly, the participants of the Watermark Conference chose the coin for the People’s Choice Award.
But we should tell everything in course.
In the “unique idea solution” category the winner is the silver coin “Thrift Industry in Russia” with the face-value of 3 rubles.
Its uniqueness is in the fact that the hero of the coin is the person whose name has not been known until recently. It is the first investor of the first Russian savings bank Nikolai Kristofari. It was he who invested 10 rubles (it was the maximum sum for a single investment at that time) in the morning of March 1, 1842, became the first investor and as a result made it into the history of the thrift business in Russia. However, Nikolai Kristofari could have remained an unknown hero, but for the employees of Sberbank who found the information about their first investor and his portrait in the archive.
The coin was struck at the Moscow Mint.
The same coin also won in another category — “the collection coin”. The thing is that in 2001 the Bank of Russia already issued four silver commemorative coins dedicated to the 160th anniversary of the thrift industry. Taking into account the present coin (dedicated to the 165th anniversary of the thrift industry) we can speak about a real thematic collection — though small, but quite varied.
The silver coin “Digits”, issued by the Bank of Latvia and struck at the Austrian Mint was considered the best one in the “successful artistic solution” category. It is one of the most unusual Latvian coins. And by the way, in Latvia this coin was called the coin of the year 2006 (over 17 700 people took part in the voting then). The coin “Digits” was one of those presented for the competition by the Organizational Committee.
In the “original technology” category the winner is the silver coin “Aivazovskiy”, issued by the Central Bank of Armenia within the framework of “The Artists of the World” International Numismatic Program. Coloured enamels were used in the manufacture of the first Armenian rectangular coin.
The coin was struck at the Polish Mint.
The best in the “silver coin of the year” category was the coin “Rider” (the National Bank of Kazakhstan, the “Gold of the Nomades” series). The images of gold articles of the Nomades found by archeologists within the territory of Kazakhstan are used in the design of the coins of this series. In this case the gold-plated image of the ancient gold badge with a galloping horseman is applied. The coin was struck at the Kazakhstan Mint.
There were two winners in the “gold coin of the year” category. These were the coins “Peregrine Falcon” of the National Bank of the Republic of Belarus and “Nestor the Chronicler” of the National Bank of Ukraine. They received the same number of votes.
The coin “Peregrine Falcon” issued within the “Environmental Protection” series (the peregrine falcon is the rarest species of the birds of prey of Belarus). A diamond was used as an insert in the coin struck by “Walkambi” Mint (Switzerland).
The coin “Nestor the Chronicler” was issued within the “Spiritual Treasures of Ukraine” series. It was struck at the Mint of the National Bank of Ukraine.
The winner in the “coin of the year” category is the Russian “150th Anniversary of the State Tretyakov Gallery Foundation” coin. It is a 25‑ruble silver coin with a gold insert. Coins have already been issued according to this technology in Russia — in 2004, to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the Currency Reform of Peter the Great. But the present coin is technologically more complicated. The front of the main building of the State Tretyakov Gallery is depicted on the front side of the coin; the fragments of paintings from the collection of the State Tretyakov Gallery are used in its design. The sketch author is Alexander Baklanov, Head Artist of Saint-Petersburg Mint, People’s Artist of Russia. The coin was struck at the Saint-Petersburg Mint.
The prize “for the contribution to the development of the market of precious metal coins” was received by Sberbank of Russia. Only last year Sberbank sold 734 thousand commemorative coins, including 208 thousand foreign coins. All this amounts to not less than 70 per cent of the Russian market.
According to the opinion of the representatives of Sberbank, today the people’s interest to the coin is attracted mostly by the “image”. Apparently, the General Sponsor of Coin Constellation-2007 was guarded by this reason when he presented the prize in “the coin as the best gift” category to “The Tulip of Regel” coin, Kazakhstan. It is really a very beautiful coin, where one of the flowers is a hologram.
And, by the way, Sberbank of Russia received an excellent opportunity to check how its perceptions about what the people should like agree with what they really like. At the registration every participant of the Watermark Conference received not only the catalogue with the coin images, but also a questionnaire allowing to vote for any of the coins. The coin which received the maximum votes was to receive the People’s Choice Award.
“The Tulip of Regel” became that coin! In a hot contest it outscored another popular among the Conference participants “Tikhvin Mother of God Assumption Monastery” coin with a few votes.
What’s next?
The distribution of awards among the winners of Coin Constellation-2007 became the prologue to the Coin Constellation-2008 competition.
Because, first of all, none of the participants doubted the possibility and advisability of holding such a competition every year.
And secondly, it turned out that the participants had a lot of useful ideas of how to improve the competition.
In particular, we were advised to increase the number of categories; to enlarge the geography of participants (outside the limits of the CIS and the Baltic States); to extend the Competition Committee number; to invite representatives of the international dealers working with commemorative coins to co-operation. The Organizational Committee is viewing these proposals at the moment.
You will learn of what Coin Constellation-2008 will be like in the Watermark and The Gold Chervonets magazines.
Nadezhda Vetrova
