The debut ceremony for the commemorative badges of 29th Beijing Olympic mascots was held on November 15 in the Head Office of Bank of China (BOC). As a“heavyweighted”souvenir for the Beijing Olympics, the limited edition of the badges are made and issued around the world by China Banknote Printing and Minting Corporation (CBPMC) with the authorization of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG) Bank of China, the official banking partner for Beijing 2008 Olympic Games,will manage the sale of the commemorative badges. BOCOG, BOC and CBPMC leaders unveiled the badges at the debut ceremony,. The launch of Olympic souvenirs has not only aroused the public’s concern and passion for the Olympics but also triggered a new round craze for collecting Olympic souvenirs.
The mascot badges, made of gold, silver and bronze respectively, will be distributed worldwide with limited supply. Among them, there are 29 pieces of 5-kg gold badges and 200 pieces of 1-kg gold badges. Experts said in the ceremony that the badges are valuable souvenirs with high technological and artistic value.
First, these badges are of unprecedented collection value in terms of size and issuing quantity, especially the purity. The 999 gold badge that weighs 5 kilograms, is the largest souvenir ever issued in the 100-year history of Olympics, and its limited production of 29 pieces worldwide is the smallest quantity ever for a Olympic souvenir. The launch of the badges has aroused great interest from domestic and foreign collectors. The limited production of the badge series will add to value of collection.
The technics used to produce the badges also reflect the idea of “high-tech Olympics”. A number of the technological approaches have been adopted for the first time in the country or even in the world. For example, in the production of 5-kg and 1-kg gold badges, the holographic transfer printing anti-counterfeiting technology was used; while the silver badges adopted the double-sided color printing technology. Both represents the high level of scientific and technological accomplishment.
The Olympic badges, designed by well-known Chinese masters, are of high artistic value. On the bronze badges, artists used the calligraphic free-hand style to depict the “bird’s nest” stadium. With the implied meaning of “birds returning to the nest”, the artists displayed the idea of the people from all over the world gathering at the Olympic Games in Beijing. The Olympic badges are no doubt rare and valuable art works.
At the debut ceremony, BOC and CBPMC donated badges to BOCOG, who will keep them as permanent collection witnessing the Beijing Olympics. The newly issued souvenirs are now on sale at subsidiaries of Bank of china all over the country.
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