The United States Mint has now released the final design images for the 2018 Breast Cancer Awareness Commemorative coins, due to be released in 2018.
The designs were unveiled during a ceremony held on October 23, 2017, at the Breast Cancer Research Foundation’s headquarters in New York. In 2016 the US Mint announced that they will be holding a public design competition, in accordance with The Breast Cancer Awareness Commemorative Coin Act (Public Law 114-148). The purpose of the competition being to come up with an original design for the three proposed coins to be released.
The eventual winner was revealed as US Mint Artistic Infusion Program artist, Emily S Damstra. Damstra is primarily known for her artistic work as an illustrator of scientific subject matter and as a freelance natural science illustrator. She is no stranger to numismatics however, as over two dozen commemorative and circulating coins have been issued featuring her designs. The majority of which were minted by the Royal Canadian Mint. Collectors of US coins will also recognise her work on the 2017 Boys Town silver Dollar commemorative coin.
The reverse of the coin features a Tiger Swallowtail butterfly in mid-flight. The legend encircles the central image and reads : “United States of America” to the top with the denomination noted just below and slightly offset to the left of the coin. While it continues to the bottom with the inscriptions “E Pluribus Unum” and “Breast Cancer Awareness”.
The obverse has the inscription “LIBERTY” to the top, along the rim, and the words “2018” and “IN GOD WE TRUST” to the bottom. The design features the three-quarter portraits of two women, both facing to the left of the coin. The older woman in the foreground has both her hands folded over her chest with a contented, relieved expression on her face. The younger woman, wearing a headscarf, in the background has one hand resting on her chest while the other is raised in a defiant fist in the air. A ribbon and butterfly appear overhead as a symbol of hope.
The program is set to release a clad half dollar coin, a silver one dollar coin as well as a gold five dollar coin – all bearing the same obverse and reverse designs. The noteworthy detail about this release is the fact that the gold $5 commemorative coin is slated to be the first ever pink gold coin to be released by the US Mint in it's 225 year history.
The Half dollar coins are set to be minted at both the San Francisco and Denver Mints with a maximum mintage of 750 000 coins across all product options. The silver dollar will be minted at the US Mint's Philadelphia facility and bear a maximum mintage figure of 400 000 coins. Finally the pink gold $5 coin is to hail from the West Point Mint with a maximum mintage of 50 000 coins.
As authorised by the law, surcharges collected from coin sales are authorised to be paid to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation for the purpose of furthering breast cancer research funded by the Foundation. The surcharge will amount to $35 for the gold coin, $10 for the silver and $5 for the clad coin.
The Mint will announce additional details about the coins’ availability and pricing prior to their release in 2018, and WNN will be sure to bring you all of these details as they become available.
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