Commemorative Coins of Vancouver 2010 Winter Games

Of all the 17 commemorative coins (issued in three years time) for Winter Olympics to be held in Vancouver, 2010, I have collected only three through daily buying of things.

It is great to own some which I can bring home for collection. To be greedy, I want to collect the whole set, but it will be costly and time-consuming.

The three coins I have collected are of three events of the Games 2010:
(1) Biathlon (the one with an athlete shooting)
(2) Bobsleigh (athletes riding on a fast and aerodynamic bobsleigh)
(3) Curling (teams of athletes pushing 19.1-kilogram stones towards a series of concentric rings or circles. The object is to get the stones as close to the centre of the rings as possible.)

Another coin is about ice-hockey, but at first sight, it seems to me that it does not belong to the same series. Now I learn that it is my fourth commemorative coin collected.

Let us see what happened in 2002:

An historic Olympic hockey victory for Canada is now forever etched on a 25-cent coin. The Royal Canadian Mint is inviting Canadians to save the latest circulation coin in its Vancouver 2010 collection – the 25-cent coin celebrating the men’s hockey gold at Salt Lake City in 2002. The launch of the coin was commemorated today at a special event for local hockey youth with special guests including NHL hockey star and member of the 2002 men’s Olympic hockey team Michael Peca, Ottawa 67’s head coach Chris Byrne and members of the Ottawa 67’s hockey team.

“Many Canadians from coast to coast remember where they were on February 24, 2002 when the final seconds of the game counted down to the exhilaration of Canada’s first Olympic gold medal in men’s hockey in 50 years,” said Ian E. Bennett, President and CEO of the Royal Canadian Mint.

On the two coins with the face of Queen Elizabeth II, the well-known logo of a “standing man” (stone-hedge like) can be seen at the lower left corner.