2016-11-24 Thu

The 80th birthday of Pope Francis was celebrated on 2016 Cook Islands series of gold coin struck with Big Gold Minting technology. Coin Invest Trust produced large diameter coins with less metal. A $25 coin was made from one-quarter of an ounce of gold, has a diameter of 35 millimetres, larger than an American Eagle gold $50 coin.

President Theodore Roosevelt asked sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens to initiate a change in American coinage. The 1907 Saint-Gaudens, Extremely High Relief gold double eagle pattern was the best of the lot.

Smaller planchets are a limitation for producing high relief or extra high relief coins. Smartminting by Coin Invest Trust allows higher relief coins to be struck with standard weight planchets. It makes minting high relief coins possible with only slightly increased coin weights. It also allows for much larger than usual diameters. Coins with reduced weights can be struck with standard relief height using this technology.

Coin Invest Trust recently launched gold coins in weights from a half gram to 1 ounce to mark the 80th birthday of Pope Francis; these coins also make use of the Big Gold Minting technology.