Coins finance Icelandic studies and exchange

Proceeds from the sales of the new U.S. and Icelandic Leif Ericson commemorative coins will support the Leifur Eiriksson Foundation at U.Va., created this spring to finance graduate-level student exchanges between both countries.

The foundation will promote the advanced study of Iceland, including its history, culture, literature, science, law, business, medicine and technology. The foundation also is working as a partner with the White House Millennium Commission to celebrate the 1,000th anniversary of Leifur Eiriksson's discovery of the New World.

A cooperative effort of U.Va. and the Central Bank of Iceland, the foundation will provide "significant resources that will enable generations of students to explore all of the educational opportunities that both countries hold," said Robert Kellogg, professor emeritus of English and chair of the foundation's board of trustees.

Several U.Va. scholars have a direct interest in Iceland, including: President John T. Casteen III, an authority in medieval literature, and Marshall Brement, the Hugh S. and Winifred Cumming Memorial Professor of International Affairs, who is a former U.S. ambassador to Iceland.

For more, go to: http://www.virginia.edu/topnews/releases2000/eiriksson-june-21-2000.html