Battles That Changed History continues with the decisive defeat of Napoleon Bonaparte at Waterloo

The New Zealand Mints companion series to their Warriors of History range called ‘Battles That Changed History’ has seen a second release. Jumping from the New World to the Old, an incredibly pivotal battle in the history of Europe and the wider world is featured; the Battle of Waterloo. Putting paid to Napoleon’s ambitions to conquer Europe and build an empire, Wellington and Blucher ended them definitively.

Like Warriors of History, this series employs a coloured figure on an antiqued battle scene in the background. Waterloo depicts the man synonymous with the victory, the Duke of Wellington, an able and gifted commander. The line of musket bearers behind him do a good job of showing just what a bloody battle like this would’ve looked like. Inscriptions are limited to the name and date of the battle, as well as this mints usual composition information in a very small font.

The obverse showing the effigy of Queen Elizabeth II is also antiqued. Packaging is the small wooden chest that has been employed previously on such series as Journeys of Discovery, as well as the recent Pirates of the Caribbean 5 coin. As we said last time, it’s a decent item, but we do miss the very neat and storage friendly book-style boxes used by Warriors of History. An opinion rather than a statement of what is actually better, however, and you may well prefer these.

A serialised certificate of authenticity is in the chest and the mintage is 5,000 coins, a number low enough for the previous issue to sell out at the mint. There are several other coins planned for the series and look like a great mix of historical periods. Price has risen slightly to $82.00 USD and the coin is available later today from their webstore, or from several of our site sponsors.