To commemorate the upcoming XXXI Olympic Games that will take place in Rio de Janeiro in August 2016, the Central Bank of Brazil issued coins of 10 and 1 real. The event is truly grand since it is the first Olympics held in South America. The Brazilian Olympic coin sets were minted in both precious and non-precious metals, but we will specifically talk about bimetallic coins of 1 real in this article. You can take a closer look and purchase the Olympic 2016 coin sets here: http://coinsmoscow.ru/cn766/

Bimetallic Brazilian Olympic coins are made of stainless steel (inner circle) and steel with a bronze covering (outer circle). The diameter of the Brazilian Olympic coins is 27 mm; the weight is 7 grams and a ratio of the sides is 180 degrees. The maximum circulation for these coins is 20.000.000 pieces. Four sets of 4 coins each plus one individual coin make 17 coins total that complete the series of commemorative Brazilian Olympic Rio-2016 coins.

The first Rio-2016 coin to be issued was 1 real of 2012 "Olympic flag handover" with the inscription - "ENTREGA DA BANDEIRA OLIMPICA» engraved at the top of the coin. The first coin set came out in 2014; it included 4 coins of 1 real bearing the official Olympic Rio-2016 logo. It represents the following Olympic disciplines: golf, running, diving and 1 Paralympics discipline - parathriathlon. In 2015 two more 1 real sets of coins of the Olympic Games in Brazil were released. The first set of 2015 shows rugby, sailing, basketball and paracanoe; and the second set represents soccer, volleyball, judo and paralympic athletics. The last set of coins issued in 2016 commemorates boxing, paraswimming, Olympic and Paralympic Mascots.

Brazilian Olympic Coin Set (2014) #1	Brazilian Olympic Coin Set (2015) #2	Brazilian Olympic Coin Set (2015) #3	Brazilian Olympic Coin Set (2016) #4

Some interesting facts about the coins:

1. The Olympic and Paralympic Mascots Vinicius and Tom are named after famous Brazilian musicians Vinicius de Moraes and Tom (Antonio) Jobim.

2. Two coins from the sets depict boxing and Paralympic swimming – those are the sports where Brazilians won considerable number of medals.

3. The 1 real of 2014 “Running” shows one of the brightest American athletes Ray Ewry who was contracted polio as a young boy and in the childhood was confined to a wheelchair. However Ewry began to exercise and get engaged in jumping for strengthening his legs, which eventually led him to the Olympic gold.

Personally, I really enjoy these coin series for not only them commemorating the very first Olympic Games in South America, but also I appreciate their attractive design where all pictures of sports compliment the inner circle of the coin. By the way here is a cool “mistake coin” I found in one of the sets. You can see a coin stamp shift where the picture does not perfectly match a circle during the mintage. I might save this one for my collection also!

Article is written on 29.02.2016, when using quotes from the article, please put a reference to the source (coinss.com)