Public invited to design 50p coins to celebrate the Games

The Britis,h public is being invited to design 50 pence coins to ,commemorate the London 2012 Oly,mpic and Par,alympic Games. They will fe,ature on the ,back of millions of ,50 pen,ce pieces from March 2010. The winners, will also receive £1,000 cash and a gold c,oin featuring their own design., Launching t,he competition, with a giant coin in Traf,algar Square this morning, Olympic ,gold medallist Jonathan Edw,ards said: ‘This is an amazin,g opportunity for the whole natio,n to be a part of Lo,ndon 2012 in a lasting, ,memorable way.’

The competition, being run by the Royal Mint, is o,pen all UK residents over the age of 13. A ,total of 29 designs will be chosen, depicting each of the sports at the Olympic and Paralympic Games,.. Two of the ,29 sports will be designed by children: the At,hletics coin will be chosen fro,m a special children's c,ompetition for 6-12 year olds, lau,nching on Blue Peter, today; a coin for Cycling, will be chosen from secondary ,school entries (13-19 year olds). For a list of permitted sporting ,themes and the full entry criteria, and competition terms and conditions, visit royalmintcompetition.co.uk

Entries must be provided, on a downloadable template and be submitted no later than 24 April 2009.

original source london2012.com