Soon one baseball lover will be able to turn his hobby into some coin.
No, really. The United States Mint is holding an open competition for the design of coins meant to commemorate the game of baseball, the Mint announced Thursday in a press release.
It's the first public design competition the U.S. Mint has held since 1992; the winner's entry will be printed on the heads side of the 2014 National Baseball Hall of Fame Commemorative Coins. The $5 gold, $1 silver and half-dollar clad coins are the culmination of the National Baseball Hall of Fame Commemorative Coin Act, signed by President Barack Obama last year.
The coins themselves will actually be a first of its kind -- the $5 and $1 coins will be the first "curved" coins to be minted. The coins will be concave on the heads side and convex on the tails side in order to resemble the curvature of a baseball.
In addition to having designed a piece of U.S. currency, the winner will also receive $5,000 and have their initials engraved on the coins.
Think you'd have a shot?
Here are the guidelines, as provided by the U.S. Mint in a press release:
- The obverse design must be "emblematic of the game of baseball" and must include the inscriptions "Liberty," "In God We Trust," and "2014."
- Two-dimensional designs must be monochrome, not color, and three-dimensional models must be made using neutral plaster or a durable plastic material and should be approximately 8" in diameter.
- Designs must not include the name or depiction of a real player or any other person, living or not.
- Designs must not include depictions, names, emblems, logos, trademarks or any other indicia associated with any specific commercial, private, educational, civic, religious, sports, or other organizations whose membership or ownership is not universal, including any current or former baseball team, either professional or amateur.
- Designs must not include any depiction of a real baseball stadium, field, arena, either in whole or in part, whether or not currently existing or in use.
- Department of the Treasury employees, contractors and former contractors under the Mint's Artistic Infusion Program are ineligible, including United States Mint and other Treasury offices and bureaus.
In order to qualify for the competition, contestants will need to be 14 years or older and U.S. citizens.
But for those young designers and baseball lovers under 14, there is another competition.
The Kids' Baseball Coin Design Challenge for those ages 13 and under also calls for a design for the commemorative coins. However, the winners will not have their coins minted, instead they will receive a $1 commemorative coin and have their designed showcased on the U.S. Treasury, U.S. Mint and National Baseball Hall of Fame websites.
The competition will be run on Challenge.org, a website set up by the Obama Administration in 2010 to reward prize money for tech and innovative competitions, in addition to the U.S. Mint website for both the adult and children's competitions.
Opening day for the competition is April 11.
Before You Go
