Belgium 2016 Rio Olympic Games 10 Euro Silver Coin

Description:

The 2016 Belgium 10 Euro “Belgium at the Rio Olympics” coin is a silver-hued celebration of that European nation’s strong presence at the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Belgium is slated to field 98 competitors in 17 different sports, including archery, sailing, and swimming. Belgians have participated in virtually every Olympic Game since 1900, with the exception of the St. Louis Summer Games in 1904.

This commemorative piece, emblematic of Belgium’s involvement with the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Summer Games, echoes themes of social harmony and includes the Olympic logo known around the world. The coin will be issued as a non-circulating proof specifically for collectors.

Obverse:

A joint panel consisting of representatives from the Belgian Olympic Committee and the Royal Mint of Belgium selected the design for Belgium’s 10 Euro Olympic coin. The winning design was submitted by Vincent Hontoir, a physical education teacher in Pont-à-Celles, a town in the Belgian province of Hainaut.

Hontoir’s design incorporates three faceless human figures, their arms stretched jubilantly upward. One figure stands closer to the foreground than the other two, who stand a short distance behind the primary person. All three individuals appear to stand on a flat plane representative of a track, baseball court, or other hard sporting surface.

Below the figures is the Belgium Olympic Committee’s (BOC) logo, featuring a faceless human figure holding behind it the nation’s flag. On the coin, the flag has no distinctive patterns. However, on official BOC material the flag is rendered in the ordinary fashion of the nation’s flag and bears three vertical stripes in black, yellow, and red from left to right, respectively.

Under the figure holding the flag are the five rings of the official Olympic logo. The five rings represent each of the five continents of Europe, North and South America, Asia, Australia, and Africa.

Aspects of the three main figures on the obverse and the BOC logo are superimposed upon a device that resembles a broad, shallow-relief collar incorporated into the obverse design. Two inscriptions are located on the collar, including TEAM BELGIUM on the left center of the collar and the coin’s date of issue, 2016, in the four o’clock position.

Reverse:

The reverse of the 2016 Belgium Rio Olympics silver coin features a map of EU member states (including Great Britain, whose Brexit vote to leave the European Union occurred on June 23, 2016). The geographical map of Europe is superimposed on a field of two vertical lines and one horizontal line resembling latitude and longitude. The majority of the European map sits within the rectangular box formed by the three lines.

Under the horizontal line, which sits across the lower quarter of the reverse, is the inscription BELGI/QUE/E/EN, with the three alternate suffixes written in smaller font than “BELGI” and expressed in three stacked horizontal lines of text immediately to the right of the root name. These three alternate spellings of Belgium represent the nation’s name as translated in French, Dutch, and German, respectively.

The coin’s denomination, 10 EURO, sits on the center left of the coin in two horizontal lines of large-font text, and the coin’s year of issue, 2016, resides on the lower left of the coin just above the leftmost terminus of the horizontal coordinate line.

On the lower left-hand side of the coin is the Royal Mint of Belgium mintmark, represented by Archangel St. Michael, patron saint of Brussels, with a cross atop his head. A tiny cat serves as the mint’s privy mark – an image chosen by the Belgian Mint’s director, Bernard Gillard, who has a passion for felines and owns seven of them. Clustered near the mintmark and privy mark are the letters LL, which signify the initials of reverse designer Luc Luycx, who has designed the reverses of many Euro coins.

Designer(s): Luc Luycx is a computer engineer and medalist from Belgium (View Designer’s Profile).

Coin Specifications: