Considered one of the greatest of the ninteenth-century composers, Frederik Chopin further cemented his name in the public conciousness with his death at the early age of just 39. Despite that, he left a widely admired body of music, mostly including the piano, that numbers over 230 surviving works. Coming this October, is the 17th International Chopin Piano Competition, a piano competition held in Warsaw, Poland. It was initiated in 1927 and has been held every five years since 1955. It’s one of few competitions devoted entirely to the works of a single composer. In 1957 the competition became one of the founding members of the World Federation of International Music Competitions in Geneva and is organized by the Fryderyk Chopin Institute of Warsaw.

Despite being known for some highly unusual coins, and we did see a really beautiful Chopin prototype at this years World Money Fair in Berlin whose status is currently unknown, this Mint of Poland coin is one that actually just looks like a coin for a change. Based on a famous statue of the composer rather than on an image of the man himself, this two-ounce fine silver design is struck in an ultra-high relief style with some colouring done with a light touch. Only 500 will be struck, but given the popularity of the competition we’d imagine them selling well. Supplied in one of our favorite display frames, one of the floating latex ones, it looks a good gift for the classical music afficionado. The ultra-high relief doesn’t show up in these images, so we’ll try to get some pictures of an actual coin to see how good it looks. Our guess is this one looks a lot better in the real world.

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