Here’s a fun story for a Friday afternoon. The Royal Dutch Mint has issued a limited edition commemorative coin which can be viewed with Layar to reveal augmented information.

Last year, the mint presented anniversary coins in €5 and €10 denominations which featured QR codes on the back. This year, they’ve kicked things up a notch, using the Layar Creator to add interactivity to new coins without the need for any special markers.

The coins are 5 Florin coins from Aruba, one of the 4 member countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. They honor the Shoco, an endangered species of owl indigenous to Aruba which was recently named the country’s national symbol. Scanning the coin, of which only 2,500 were produced, provides collectors with additional information about the Shoco. 

“It is very special to be the first mint in the world with an Augmented Reality coin,” says Maarten Brouwer, mint master at Royal Dutch Mint. “This Augmented Reality coin is a new milestone in the rich series of special coins we make.”

Augmenting coins is certainly beyond our normal examples of magazines and newspapers using the Layar Creator to provide interactivity, but it’s a great showcase for the versatility of the Layar Creator. Any flat image can be easily enhanced to provide further value to those who scan it with Layar.