Representing 29 Olympic and Paralympic sports, the coins’ designs were drawn from 30,000 entries in a public competition in early 2009. The series with the most popularity is the 2011 Olympic 50p coin collection. Then, to celebrate the countdown to the Olympics, a series of four 5 pound coins were issued, starting in 2009 until 2012. That year, the Royal Mint issued a 2-pound commemorative coin to celebrate the handover. The Royal Mint’s involvement in promoting the Olympics started as soon as the official handover was televised at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China. The Olympics 50p Coins: The Most Popular Olympics Coins Guttman would later be appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1950 and then promoted to Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1966 for his work.

It’s now the second largest sporting event in the world.įor his work and contributions to the Paralympics movement, Dr. After the Summer Games in 1988 and the Winter Games in 1992, the Paralympic Games have taken place in the same cities and venues as the Olympic competition. The year was chosen to coincide with the 1948 Olympic Games.Įventually, these games would transform into the Paralympic Games with the first Paralympic Games held in Rome in 1960. Guttman held a competition for wheelchair athletes called the Stoke Mandeville Games. In an effort to promote the rehabilitation of WWII soldiers, Dr. Ludwig Guttman, a doctor in the spinal injuries centre at the Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Aylesbury, England. Even though there were already sports clubs for athletes with impairments since the late 1800s, it wasn’t until 1948 that the first competition for impaired athletes was organised.

50p olympic coin collection