Japan Ministry of Finance and the Japan Mint is calling for entries to a Japan Mint coin design contest for the new 10,000 yen gold coins and 1,000 yen silver coins which will be issued to commemorate the Great East Japan Earthquake Reconstruction Project. You can send your entries via post or via email before 21 March 2012. The designs that have passed the preliminary screening by the Ministry of Finance and the Japan Mint will be posted on the Japan Mint website in early April 2012. The winning designs will be press-released and posted on the Japan Mint website at the end of May 2012. A certificate of commendation and a commemorative gift will be awarded to the winners.
SPECIFICATIONS AND REQUIREMENTS
(1) The contest calls for designs for the individual sides of the coins. To the common sides of the coins, the designs created by the Japan Mint and press-released by the Ministry of Finance will be applied. The contest will select three designs for the gold coins and three designs for the silver coins.
The specifications of the gold and silver coins are as follows.
(a) The 10,000 yen gold coins may be pure gold and their diameter may be 26 mm.
(b) The 1,000 yen silver coins may be pure silver and their diameter may be 40mm. These silver coins may be color-printed.
(2) It is desirable that the coin design contains motifs which represent the Great East Japan Earthquake reconstruction project and is recognizable as a commemorative coin.
(3) The coin design MUST contain inscriptions of:
(a) For the gold coins, the word “日本国” and the denomination of the coin “10000YEN“or ”10000円”.
(b) For the silver coins, the word“日本国” and the denomination of the coin “1000YEN“ or ”1000円”.
HOW TO ENTER
Please enter the contest according to the following guidelines.
(1) Entries shall be unpublished and original. There is no limitation on the number of entries per person.
(2) When submitting via post, please use A4 landscape (210mm long by 297mm wide) white drawing paper and draw your design within a circle, as mentioned below. Please keep approximately 1 cm wide blank within the circumference because the rim of the coin will be drawn on this space. Entries with no such blank space may be adapted by the Japan Mint for use as a coin design.
(a) For the gold coins, the diameter of the circle is 13cm.
(b) For the silver coins, the diameter of the circle is 16cm.
If you were born on or after April 2, 1996, it is not necessary to draw your design within a circle. In this case, however, please still try to draw your design within the size of the circle mentioned above, because the design will be cut out into a circle of the size mentioned above by the Japan Mint.
(3) When submitting via e-mail, please draw a design according to the above article (2), to be printable on A4 paper. The format and other materials are available HERE ( gold / silver ). The entries shall be in the following format:
(a) File format shall be PDF or JPEG.
(b) The resolution shall be approximately 350 dpi or more so as to ensure the reproducibility of the design.
(c) The data size of the file shall be approximately 2 megabyte or less so as not to cause any errors in e-mail transmission.
The Japan Mint will print the entries on paper and submit them for preliminary screening, to be conducted by the Ministry of Finance and the Japan Mint. The final selection, however, will be made of the entries printed on paper by the entrants themselves because the reproducibility of colors may differ according to printing equipment. Each entrant who has passed the preliminary screening will be required to submit the coin design printed on paper to the Japan Mint via post according to the above article (2).
(4) Designs for the gold coins MUST be drawn in black and white, and designs for the silver coins shall be drawn in color.
(5) Please DO NOT include anything except the coin design on the front side of the drawing paper. Please make sure that the coin design is not creased or folded.
(6) When submitting via post, please enclose your design(s) in an envelope. Please DO NOT enclose designs for the gold coin and for the silver coin together in the same envelope. Please DO NOT enclose the designs of several entrants in the same envelope. However, if the designs are drawn by junior high school students or younger, schools can enclose them in the same envelope.
When submitting via e-mail, please attach one design to one message. Please DO NOT attach several designs to a same e-mail message. If you submit designs for the gold coin and the silver coins, please send them separately.
(7) Please include the following information on the reverse side of the drawing paper and on the envelope, or in the message space of the e-mail. As for group entry by a school, please include the name of the school, and the name and contact information of the teacher/staff in charge on the envelope.
- Address, Name, Contact information (Telephone number, fax number or e-mail address) of the entrant
- If the entrant was born on or after April 2, 1996, the age of the entrant, and his/her parent’s name.
ADDRESS FOR ENTRIES
(a) Via post:
Japan Mint
Attn. Gold/Silver Coin Section
C/O Osaka Branch,
Japan Post Service Co., Ltd.
Japan 539-0022
(b) Via e-mail:
E-mail address: gold@mint.go.jp (for gold coin), silver@mint.go.jp (for silver coin)
You can read more about the contest here; Coin design contest pdf. For any enquiries you can contact Japan mint via E-mail: kahei.koubo@mint.go.jp
