Currency Inferiority Complex?

Last week I invited public relations members of Help A Reporter Out (HARO) to submit Olympic stuff. Several very interesting items filled my in box, the first of which is a million dollar idea.

According to the publicist for GovMin.com, for the 2008 Beijing Games the China Mint created the largest Olympic coin in history. I've always been more of a philatelist than into numismatics, but must admit this massive coin (22 pounds of solid gold) was intriguing.

How big is it? It's so big it puts the U.S. 25 cent piece to shame, sort of like putting earth next to Saturn or Jupiter on a solar system model (see photo). This coin will only set you back a cool Olympic million dollars, with only one such special edition medallion available in the U.S.

I think I'll stick to Olympic pin collecting and stamps for now, but look forward to learning about the eventual sale of this coin. In the meantime, this KARE-TV (Minneapolis/St. Paul NBC) clip on the coins is quite good video.

UPDATE (added Aug. 7): At the time of this posting above, I was not aware that the Royal Canadian Mint is involved, and that the Mint is actually a client of Edelman's Beijing office. So in the interest of disclosure, adding this update that the Mint works with Edelman Beijing for the Mint's participation in the Olympex Exhibition (which I will certainly add to my action list for a visit).