SIDNEY — “The Bicentennial silver coins have arrived,” said Bicentennial Committee Chair Mike Barhorst. The .999 fine silver coins were minted by Osborne Coinage of Cincinnati. The coins are currently being readied for distribution, and will be available for pickup beginning Monday, Dec. 17.
The coins were designed by Mary Beth Monnier, president of Creative Marketing Strategies, with input from the Bicentennial Committee.
“Mary Beth used the graphics from the bicentennial logo in the coin design,” Shelby County Commissioner Bob Guillozet said.
Guillozet went on to explain one side of the coin contains the year of the County’s founding (1819) and the year of the bicentennial celebration (2019). That side of the coin also contains the four words that the Bicentennial Committee believe best represent Shelby County: freedom, families, farms and industry.
The other side of the coin contains the names of Shelby County’s current villages and lone city. It also includes stylized images for families, freedom, farms and industry.
“Freedom is represented by Shelby County’s flag, families by a mother, father and children, farms by a barn, and, industry by three interconnecting gears,” Guillozet said. “Mary Beth did a great job of taking our ideas and creating a coin that will still have meaning two hundred years from now!”
The coins that have been preordered will be available at the site pre-selected by the individual making the order. Those sites include Peoples Federal Savings & Loan, Mutual Federal Savings Bank, and the Shelby County Historical Society.
Only 250 coins were minted. Only a few of them remain, and are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Coins may be purchased at the same three locations including Peoples Federal Savings & Loan, Mutual Federal Savings Bank, and the Ross Historical Center.
Shelby County’s near year-long bicentennial celebration will begin April 1, 2019.
“Believe it or not, Shelby County was ‘born’ on April Fools Day in 1819,” Barhorst said. “Originally, the land that became Shelby County was part of what was once a much larger Miami County.
“Indeed, Shelby County too was originally much larger than it is today,” Barhorst said. “As the population of Ohio grew and new counties were organized, Auglaize County was created from part of what was once a much larger Shelby County.”
Plans are underway for the bicentennial’s opening celebration. That celebration will be held on Courthouse Square. It is expected that the schedule of events that are planned for each month will be announced in early January 2019.
