The Finnish flag turns 90 next year and it will be commemorated with a collector coin. Not sure of the composition or denomination, but since it is termed a "collector" coin it will not be a circulating €2 coin.

Press release

Which means they will want something like €49.99 for the €2 coin.

No, the €2 commemorative coins do not carry such surcharges (except pieces from Monaco and the like). My Finnish is a little rusty but judging from the press release http://www.rahapaja.fi/en/documents/2233/K...uomen_lippu.pdf this piece should be a collector coin, silver (Ag 925), face value €10 ... and most likely it will carry a hefty surcharge.

Thanks for the info, "Sir"! Hope that this won't be a colored coin ...

Christian

Well then, since it will be silver flavoured, more like €79.99.

Moneta has been experimenting with color with medals and most recently in the medal that is in this year's proof set. And with the theme being the blue&white Finn flag, I can already see the "First time ever...!" advertisments here. Hopefully I am wrong.

Not exactly THAT bad, but bad enough.

And voilà, we have a winner. These are the first three, with #1 being the winning design ...
http://www.numismatico.de/files/image002_100.gif

... and these are the other two, Number Four and Five:
http://www.numismatico.de/files/image004_162.gif

Actually I like the two Paavilainen designs best: Of these five, #2 is my favorite. #4 is a very nice design too, partly because of the lion. The winner is a little too abstract in my opinion. Also, the obverse and reverse designs are not exactly well balanced. YMMV of course.

Christian

Great that you found these! Now I don't have to go do the work of taking photos myself.


Like you, I prefer numbers 2 and 4 as well- #2 a bit more. #3 reminds me too much of the Moomin coin from the other year.

Anyhow, here is the press release.
http://www.rahapaja.fi/en/press-releases/1893/

I was not wrong

And as the Mint regularly issues two collector coins each year, here is the announcement for the second coin for 2008:

http://www.rahapaja.fi/en/press-releases/1900/

And the winning design along with the press release.

No sounds of excitement from here this time. But abstract themes like this ("Anniversary of Finnish science and research") are always difficult to visualize. So this is Tapio Kettunen's winning design - keep in mind that the actual coin will be a bimetallic piece:



By the way, the "second best" and "third best" designs are both by Reijo Paavilainen:
(#2) http://www.numismatico.de/files/fi20085ebi...atz2cs8_180.jpg
(#3) http://www.numismatico.de/files/fi20085ebi...atz3ar1_123.jpg

Christian

None of them excite me much either. I guess that's the nature of science? For me to get more excited over a modern coin, the theme needs to interest me at least a little. If not, even well designed coins often fall flat. And this theme is a bit too general and abstract to interest me much.

To correct myself, the above announcement ended up being for a €5 piece which seems to also have become a regular annual issue.

The second silver collector coin of the year is to commemorate author Mika Walteri. Press release

Winning entry

i'm not big on colorized coins but this looks quite nice ...

umm, this looks like eczema ... kinda wacky-looking, imho.

The "Research" coin was issued a week ago or so. Here is a (computer rendered) color image from the mint ...



... and here http://www.honscha.de/bilder/5fi08.jpg is a photo of an actual coin.

Interesting that the proof version of that coin is "nSilver" coated.
http://www.beneq.com/docs/brochures/nSILVER%20brochure.pdf
Some kind of anti-oxidation protection, it seems ...

Christian

One of these "Research" coins is now mine. I still don't know whether I like the design or not - but now I can look at my piece and eventually make a decision some time, hehe.

Also, the "Finnish war and the birth of autonomy" will now be the theme of a €100 gold coin commemorating the 1808/1809 war. Here http://www.rahapaja.fi/en/documents/2249/K...omian+synty.pdf is more (in Finnish) about the forthcoming design competition.

Christian