he year 2023 brought much excitement for the Coin of the Year program. At the beginning of the year, things were on track for another usual year following the timeline implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic. The COTY 100 was announced in the January issue, the Top 10 appeared in the February issue, and the 2023 Coin of the Year Champion was announced in the March issue of World Coin News. Behind the scenes however, discussion of change was in the air among COTY staff. COVID had brought about doing virtual ceremonies that were uploaded to YouTube and , but they weren’t the same as the live ceremonies that everyone loved attending. Some staff members also pointed out that it can be confusing having an awards ceremony for coins dated two years earlier. The 2023 awards honored 2021-dated coins, 2022 Coin of the Year honored 2020-dated coins and so on. The team put their heads together and cooked up a plan: what
