Medallion - Sudbury "Numismatic Park" US Half Dollar

Reverse

Script: Latin

Lettering:
Let the word go forth that the torch has been passed;
1917 John Fitzgerald Kennedy 1963

Comment

Sudbury, Ontario sits on the world's largest reserves of nickel metal, deposited by an ancient meteorite strike. In the early 1960s, an idea was conceived in order to commemorate both Sudbury's nickel production and the Canadian Centennial (fast approaching in 1967). It was decided that a "Canadian Centennial Numismatic Park" would be opened, the only Numismatic Park in the world. Giant replicas of various coins would be produced and permanently displayed in the park. The centerpiece would be a replica of Canada's commemorative 5-cent coin from 1951, a coin commemorating the 200th anniversary of the first isolation of nickel metal - a perfect fit for this nickel-mining city. This was the famous "Big Nickel", completed in 1964. At 9 meters tall, it is perhaps the largest coin statue in the world.

The newly opened Numismatic Park also hosted smaller replicas of four other coins - a Canadian cent from 1965, an American Lincoln Memorial cent, an American Kennedy half dollar, and a commemorative Canadian $20 gold coin from 1967. Sadly, these have since been dismantled.

The Big Nickel was privately funded by Ted Szilva. To raise money for the monument's construction, he commissioned a wide variety of special medallions to be sold to collectors across the globe. Some of these medallions depicted scenes of Sudbury, others were oversized copies of the coins he intended to build statues of. This half-dollar medallion is one of these promotional fundraising issues.