Classic Star Wars from the New Zealand Mint continues to work its way through the major characters of this seminal series of science-fiction movies. Considered the flasgship of the numerous past and future Star Wars ranges, Classic sticks with a clean-struck design, devoid of modification like colour or plating. It focuses only on characters, avoiding specific movies or items.

We’ve had Darth Vader, Han Solo, Yoda, R2-D2, Princess Leia and Obi-Wan Kenobi, and now it’s the turn of perhaps the core character of the story, Luke Skywalker. The son of Darth Vader, Skywalker’s tale is told through the original trilogy and he makes appearances in the latest J.J. Abrams run as well, with rumours of a greatly expanded role in Episode VIII. The coin depicts an image from Episode IV: A New Hope, Luke next to his landspeeder on the planet Tatooine.

As usual there are three core formats; one-ounce proof gold and silver, and a quarter-ounce proof gold, the kilo silver format only ever having been used once. Packaging is great quality, simple and elegant, the silver box being black and customised, the gold being a mint regular wooden type. Mintages remain the same as previous designs, 10,000 for the silver, with the gold at 1,000 for the ¼oz and 500 for the 1oz. Prices also stay frozen at  $85.00 for the silver, $600.00 for the smaller gold, and $2,500 for the larger, all USD.

I know we say this often, but these coins are invariably better looking in hand than in the official images. In fact we’ve yet to see a bad design in this series in our opinion. Only the composition/copyright inscription continues to annoy, both would be better placed on the obverse face. The obverse, as is required for Niue Island, features the effigy of Queen Elizabeth II. Classic Star Wars will continue to debut new coins through 2017 as you’d expect given the revitalised popularity of the franchise of late. There are still multiple major characters yet to see the light of day including C3-P0 (the silver coin of which would look great gilded), Boba Fett, Emperor Palpatine and Chewbacca. All the variants are available to buy today from the mint itself, or from sponsors like Minted-UK or PowerCoin.

2017 LUKE SKYWALKER PROOF COINS

MINTS DESCRIPTION

This stunning, engraved Star Wars Classic coin features Luke SkywalkerTM standing by his X-34 landspeeder on the planet of Tatooine.

PACKAGING OF THE GOLD AND SILVER COINS

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SPECIFICATION

DENOMINATION COMPOSITION WEIGHT DIAMETER FINISH MINTAGE BOX / COA
$250 NEW ZEALAND 0.9999 GOLD 31.1 g 32.0 mm PROOF 500 YES / YES
$25 NEW ZEALAND 0.9999 GOLD 7.78 g 22.0 mm PROOF 1,000 YES / YES
$2 NEW ZEALAND 0.999 SILVER 31.1 g 40.0 mm PROOF 10,000 YES / YES

MINT LINK