Country’s coinage to watch for 2012

These countries are doing things with their coinage which are sending messages to the World, and not just in matters of finance.
Russia; 2012 sees two very important anniversaries in Russia. The 200th anniversary of the victory at Borodino and over Napoleon’s invasion, and the 1150th anniversary of the founding of Russia, all of which are being honored on precious metal and base metal Roubles. Interestingly Russia is commemorating the 150th anniversary of the birth of Peter Stolypin, who was born in 1863, in 2012, probably not to conflict with the Viktor Chernomyrdin commemorative to be issued in 2013, and apparently Russia is not saying if their Russian Federation 10 Rouble series is being put on hiatus. One thing is noticeable, Russia and other CIS nations have been having trouble distributing their coins aborad, mainly because of trouble from british commonwealth nations.
British commonwealth; Two major themes are dominating precious metal and base metal coinage in 2012. They are queen Elizabeth’s diamond jubilee, the second is the centennial of the Titanic disaster. Interestingly Canada is ceasing production of pennies this year as well.
USA; This year American mint and proof sets are hot items, as Presidential Dollars are no longer being made for circulation. Interesting 2012, like 2008, is an election year in America, and statehood quarters for Hawaii and Alaska will be issued for 2012, though not in the order they were in 2008. Also interesting is the precious metal commemoratives for the Stat-Spangled Banner are being issued in 2012 but none contain the text of that poem used for the national anthem.
EU: Austria is finally getting in on the “statehood quarter” game, one year after Spain issued their own version of the statehood quarter program. So far foreign versions of this program have been imitated by Russia, Germany, Japan, Australia, Finland, Venezuela, to name the more prominent countries involved.