Blue Peter design for Olympic 50p

The contest winner will witness their design being turned into real coins

Viewers of BBC TV's Blue Peter are being given the chance to design a 50p piece to mark the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games in London.

The winner of the competition, open to those aged between six and 12, will be the first child to see their work featured on a UK coin in circulation.

The athletics-themed coin will be issued by the Royal Mint in 2010.

The Blue Peter contest is part of a wider Royal Mint competition which will see 29 Olympic designs appear on coins.

Children have also been able to take part in other contests to design coins for the Royal Mint - although none have been winners.

Blue Peter editor Tim Levell said: "This is the first time the Royal Mint has given a child the guaranteed chance to design a circulation coin, so this really is making history."

The winner, who will be notified in October 2009, will also receive a gold version of their design and an invitation to see it being turned into coins at the Royal Mint in Llantrisant.

Judging panel

The Blue Peter competition is open to UK residents aged between six and 12 at midnight on the closing date of 2 March 2009.

We want to make sure the competitions we run are the best and for the most exciting prizes Tim Levell, Blue Peter editor

Entries need to be submitted on an official template which can be downloaded from the programme's website or obtained by post.

The "tails" side design cannot feature an image of a recognisable real person, whether alive or dead, or the Olympic rings.

The entries will be seen by a panel of judges made up of independent experts, and representatives of the Royal Mint, the BBC, London 2012 and the International Olympics Committee.

They will be split into three age groups and a top entry selected from each. A winning selection will then be made before being passed on to the Royal Mint Advisory Committee, the Treasury and the Queen for formal approval.

The contest is only the second to be run by Blue Peter since 2007 when it was revealed that a poll to name the show's cat had been rigged and programme staff had asked a child visiting the studio to pose as a phone-in competition winner.

Mr Levell said: "We are focusing on fewer but bigger competitions. We want to make sure those that we run are the best, are for the most exciting prizes and that they are run without any problems."

Blue Peter said the entries would be kept securely and entered into a database before being sent to the Royal Mint.

Coin competition

The Blue Peter contest is part of a wider Royal Mint competition which in all will see 29 designs inspired by Olympic and Paralympic sports appear on 50p coins.

On top of the TV tie-in, 27 designs will be chosen from entries from the general public with one - a cycling themed design - open only to secondary school students aged 13-19 years.

Winning entrants will receive