Design An Olympic Coin

M@
By M@ Last edited 182 months ago
Design An Olympic Coin

50p.jpg
How the coin should look

Aged 6 to 12? Enjoy designing national currencies? Then do we have the perfect competition for you. The Royal Mint seeks imaginative designs for commemorative Olympic coins and wants the country's youngsters to lead the way. (Presumably, the logic runs: if a bunch of adults can produce an Olympic design that looks like the work of a child, perhaps the opposite is also true.) So the Mint has partnered up with kids' show Blue Peter to launch a national competition. A design is sought for the reverse of the 50 pence coin. That's the side without Her Majesty on it. The logo must be original, should depict an athletic discipline, and must conform to a veritable decathlon of additional stipulations:

DO keep your design within the coin template.

Because the world just isn't ready for flanged currency.

DO use any words you like, although the fewer the better.

OK. We like the words 'scruttocks' and 'turdburglar'.

DON'T draw a recognisable real person.

That's OK. We'll sketch Nick Clegg flinging a javelin.

DON'T enter the competition if you are closely related to a BBC or Royal Mint staff member

They have a reputation for fair play to maintain at Blue Peter.

DON'T USE THE OLYMPIC RINGS.

We all know what happens when you tell a child not to do something, especially if you tell them in CAPITAL LETTERS.

Sneery tone aside, we salute any initiative that puts design into the hands of the masses. Even if the masses in this case have very small hands and think 'Royal Mint' means that the Queen is 'well cool'.

Little 'uns. Get your designs into Blue Peter by March 2nd.

Last Updated 13 January 2009