With the Pine Mountain Gold Museum at Stockmar Park entering its second year in operation, new commemorative coins are available to help pay for the construction of new displays.

The coins, comprised of a metal alloy with a highly polished brass finish, are available for $35 each at the museum on Stockmar Road. First-edition coins featured the museum’s miner mascot and the new coins feature a picture of the stamp mill. Officials plan to release a third edition in about a year.

Proceeds from the coin sales, as well as other financial donations, are what the museum relies on to create its displays. According to museum officials, about 90 percent of the displays have been funded through donations and 15 percent of the overall project has been funded using these funds.

“Basically, if we didn’t have donations, there would only be a building on the site,” Deputy City Manager Jeff Reese said.

“The biggest cost of that project was the infrastructure, which was paid for through SPLOST and capital improvement money,” he said. “But if you look at strictly displays and the stuff that you see inside the building, that was all through donations.”

New displays that are being funded through donations include construction of a working blacksmith’s shop, which officials hope to have complete by the Gold Rush Festival in September. Eventually, the museum would like to have a working village for special occasions.

As was offered with the first edition coins, those interested can request a solid gold second-edition coin be stamped especially for them. While first-edition solid gold coins sold for $1,500, the cost of these coins is based on the price of gold at the time of the order and customers must pay for the coin up front. Only three of the first edition gold coins were printed, one of which is on display at the museum.

“When the price of gold got up to $700 and $800, that was a pretty good investment,” Reese said. “There are only two of those out there, other than the one at the museum, that were ever sold. Those are most certainly collector’s items. There will never be any more of the first editions, and once we close the second edition there will never be any others.”

Those coins, as well as the $35 coins, are all individually numbered and come in a nice display box. Only 750 of the $35 coins have been minted, but more can be made if demand dictates.

“We haven’t really publicized the second ones so there haven’t been many sold yet,” he said.

Coins and other items for sale in the Pine Mountain Gold Museum gift shop can be seen on the museum’s Web site, www.pinemountaingoldmuseum.com.