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What's the story?

It’s been 16 months since the U.S. Mint released
details for a public design competition soliciting designs for the obverse and
reverse of the 2018 World War I
American Veterans Centennial silver dollar and still no announcement of the
winning designer or their winning designs.
What’s the holdup?
The design competition,
launched Feb. 29, 2016, includes that the lone artist who will receive $10,000
in compensation and have their initials sculpted into the design, would be
announced in January 2017. January has come and gone as have February, March,
April and May, and June is halfway there.
And June is supposed to
be the month the Mint announced they would disclose the winning designs and
designers for the 2018 Breast Cancer Awareness three-coin program that includes
a pink gold $5 coin.
Will that announcement
be held up, too?
Collectors of U.S.
commemorative coins, as well as those with a vested interest in the themes
being depicted, want to know what the designs look like to determine whether
they are worthy of adding to their collections.
And the Mint is looking
to hold more open design competitions for future commemorative coins.
The designs for the 2018
World War I American Veterans Centennial silver dollar are to appear on up to a
maximum of 350,000 coins in Proof and Uncirculated condition. And augmenting
those coins will be five separate silver medals honoring the five military
branches – Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard – bearing designs
executed by members of the U.S. Mint’s engraving staff and/or the Mint’s
Artistic Infusion Program artists.
Hasn’t the collecting
public waited long enough?