TT winner is in the money...47 years after his race win

EVERYONE seems to be trying to sell commemorative coins at the moment and, disturbingly, it seems that petrolheads are a prime target audience.

Sandwiched into the ad break during an episode of American Chopper recently I was somewhat taken aback by the inclusion of a commercial trying to sell me a penny piece, featuring a full-colour depiction of Britannia, for somewhere in the region of £40!

What self-respecting motorcycle enthusiast is going to buy into that, I thought...

This week I discovered there might just be some method in the London Mint’s madness, however, as the theme of coins and motor-cycles continued.

The Isle of Man government has honoured 1963 50cc TT winner and Suzuki rider Mitsuo Ito by announcing the release of a special 50 pence coin into circulation on the Isle of Man for the forthcoming 2010 Isle of Man TT races.

Now that’s more like it and, what’s more, this 50p coin will cost you the princely sum of...wait for it...50 pence.

Mr Ito is the only remaining the only Japanese winner of the daredevil road race to this day and the special coin will feature the image of Ito-san and his 50cc Suzuki racer in action at the 1963 event.

And the Surrey-based Pobjoy mint, who are creating the coin, even got a bona fide racer to strike the very first copy when Relentless Suzuki by TAS racer Bruce Anstey, joined by Suzuki GB managing director Yasuharu Osawa.

It seems there is still money in motorsport after all...just ask Mitsuo Ito.