Today, on 27 May 2016, the National Bank of Ukraine has held the final phase of the annual competition to select the Best Coin of the Year (hereinafter - the Competition) from among the commemorative coins put into circulation by the NBU from 1 January until 31 December 2015.
The Competition was was held in two phases.
The first phase of the Competition ran from 8 February until 18 April 2016. A total of over 6,000 voters participated in the voting.
The questionnaires were accumulated inside the specially designed boxes installed at the NBU’s regional premises (2, 458 questionnaires), and the premises of banks acting as NBU’s distributors (2,807 questionnaires). The Association of Numismatists of Ukraine received 1,043 completed questionnaires. 160 completed questionnaires were returned to the National Bank of Ukraine via e-mail.
The winners of the Competition were selected in the following categories: “Best coin of the Year”, “Unique Concept” and “Successful Artistic Solution”.
The following coins that had received the majority of votes entered the final phase of the Competition: Volodymyr the Great, Grand Duke of Kyiv, the Day of Defender of Ukraine, the Heavenly Hundred, and Bohdan Khmelnytskyi.
The designers of all these coins were Mr Volodymyr Taran, Mr Oleksandr Kharuk, Mr Serhii Kharuk, members of the ArtTrium group.
The Euromaidan, the Revolution of Dignity, 70 Years of Victory. 1945 - 2015, Pidhirtsi Castle, 120 Years of Kharkiv Zoo and the Oleshky sands also received a lot of votes from the public. Unfortunately, under the Competition rules, these coins failed to qualify for the second phase of the Competition.
Prior to the second round of voting that has taken place today, NBU Deputy Governor Yakiv Smolii said: “Following a good tradition that was established in 2005, we annually select the best coin. The NBU is engaged in vigorous efforts to expand the range of our products, including through the deployment of cutting-edge technology. The interest in our products is increasing year by year,not only domestically, not only domestically but also abroad.
Mr Smolii said that the NBU has put into circulation over 680 commemorative coins since 1995. Every year, on average, the NBU releases 35-40 coomemorative coins. Last year the NBU put into circulation 37 commemorative coins (32 names), including 14 silver, 22 German silver coins and 1 bimetallic coin. The total number of commemorative coins issued in 2015 reached 961,000 pieces.
All the commemorative coins designed by Mr Volodymyr Taran, Mr Oleksandr Kharuk, Mr Serhii Kharuk, members of a creative and talented group known as ArtTrium, entered the final phase of the Competition. About half of the commemorative coins issued into circulation by the NBU have been designed by this creative team of designers. The winners are obvious, but which coin will be the winner in each category continues to keep us in suspense, said Mr Smolii.
He also underlined that this year the winner selection procedure was revamped for the first time in the history of the Competition, with representatives from numismatic societies, the main consumers of the NBU’s numismatic products, accounting for the majority of the Competition jury members.
After this the Competition jury panel comprising experts from the NBU and the NBU Banknote Printing and Minting Works, members of the Expert Council on commemorative coin design and representatives from numismatic societies selected the winner (coin) in each category by secret ballot.
At the second stage of the Competion, the following winners were selected through secret ballot by the Competition jury panel:
- in the Best Coin of the Year category: "Volodymyr the Great, Grand Duke of Kyiv", designers: Volodymyr Taran, Oleksandr Kharuk, and Serhii Kharuk;
- in the Unique Concept category: "Bohdan Khmelnytskyi", designers: Volodymyr Taran, Oleksandr Kharuk, and Serhii Kharuk;
- in the Successful Artistic Solution category: "Volodymyr the Great, Grand Duke of Kyiv", designers: Volodymyr Taran, Oleksandr Kharuk, and Serhii Kharuk.