Reijo Paavilainen Awarded COTY Lifetime Achievement Award

THIS YEAR’S RECIPIENT of the Coin of the Year Lifetime Achievement Award is Finnish sculptor, coin and medal designer Reijo Paavilainen. He actually began his artistic career as a painter, however, Paavilainen quickly moved to a more three-dimensional expression with various aspects of sculpture, one of which is the design of commemorative coins. Mr. Paavilainen is perhaps the only designer to win an over-all COTY award for his first coin design, the bold 1985 50 markkaa commemorating the 150th Anniversary of the Kalevala, known as