Kim Yuna gold & silver coins for you to enjoy

It's not quite an Olympic medal, but we suppose you can hang it around your neck and pretend that it is. But whether you enjoy it as a pretend medal or coin, the Korean Olympic Committee (KOC) is sure to profit from Kim Yuna's still-hot popularity. Obviously, it's is all part of the $17 billion in value the Olympic athletes are supposed to reap for Korea in direct and indirect benefits.

According to Yonhap, "gold and silver commemorative coins for South Korean figure skating sensation Kim Yu-na will be issued next week to mark her dazzling gold-medal performance at the Vancouver Winter Olympics, the country's Olympic committee said Friday."

Maybe both gold and silver versions were made "just in case" Yuna faultered and came in second. No doubt, the KOC was busy behind the scenes long before Yuna's gold medal winning performance to bring us these beautiful coins. Or more likely, the gold coin might prove too cost prohibitive to many people. Indeed, at U.S. $770 per coin (880,000 won), it's a down payment on a Hyundai. The silver coin sells for a cheaper $106 (121,000 won), equivalent to a disappointing meal out at a fancy, overpriced restaurant.

Will Yuna get a piece of the sales? We don't know, but surely she deserves to. She has the battle scars to prove it. And She's worth at least $5 billion of the $17 billion Goldman wrote about.

"The coins are to celebrate her achievement and commemorate the touching and joyful moments," the KOC said.

The coins are manufactured by the Perth Mint in Australia. The gold coins are 7.78 grams. The silver coins are one ounce. Yonhap says that the "the front face of the coins features a scene of her free skating performance during the Games, her signature and the KOC logo." And curiously, the back of the coins feature the head of Queen Elizabeth.

Coin background

According to Dong-A, "the commemorative coins have three unique traits. First, they have been manufactured by the Perth Mint of Australia, not by the Korean mint. The coins are being circulated in Tuvalu in northeast Australia that has a population of only 12,000.

"The face value of the coins is written in the Australian dollar, not in Korean won. The gold coin has a value of 25 Australian dollars (22.56 U.S. dollars) and the silver one Australian dollar (0.90 U.S. dollar)."

In short, the coins are manufactured in Australia and circulated in Tuvalu because it is illegal to issue coins in Korea to commemorate "a certain figure within its boundary" and moreover, " commemorative coins in Korea also cannot be sold higher than the face value."

"The Bank of Korea Act stipulates that coins minted by the Korea Minting and Security Printing Corp. cannot be sold to generate added value. Accordingly, we had no choice but to manufacture the coins overseas," the KOC said.

Hwadong, the company that sells the coins, further explained: "Since the coins are colored, we needed to look for a partner with the latest technology. Accordingly, we signed a contract with the Perth Mint in Australia. The Perth Mint got direct approval from Tuvalu to circulate the coins there. It will get royalties or commissions. It is possible for the coins to be circulated in Tuvalu, but unlikely that a person with the commemorative coins will visit Tuvalu and use them."