Classic Star Wars sees out the year with Obi Wan Kenobi coins in gold and silver

It’s flagship day today at the New Zealand Mint, with a new Classic Disney coin launching and now a new Classic Star Wars coin. The NZ Mint always runs full steam with its biggest licences and they don’t get much bigger than those two. In amongst the different, shorter,  series however, there’s one that continues with a look at the core elements of the property. Those are called Classic.

Now on its sixth release, Classic Star Wars continues its showcasing of the core characters from the original trilogy of movies. We’ve already seen Darth Vader, Han Solo, Yoda, R2-D2 and Princess Leia – now it’s Obi Wan Kenobi’s turn in the limelight. Which characters are still to come and in what order are open to speculation, but with major players like Luke Skywalker, C3-P0, Boba Fett, Emperor Palpatine and Chewbacca still absent, it’s clear that 2017 will be another busy year for the series.

As before, the NZ Mint is sticking with its three core formats; one-ounce proof gold and silver, and a quarter-ounce proof gold. The kilo silver format was only used on the Darth Vader coin and hasn’t been seen since, much like the case with Classic Disney. The coin looked great, but they’re expensive. We’ve never understood why there has to be this huge jump from one-ounce to a kilo (32oz) when the cost differential is so big, especially for a popular culture subject where the target audience is just as much with the non-coin collector. A ten-ounce coin could easily be struck (especially in this post SmartMinting world) and at a price well below $1,000, that maintains the impressive 100mm diameter.

Packaging is of a high quality, simple and elegant, the silver box having some tasteful customisation, the gold being a mint regular wooden type. Mintages have not changed from previous designs, 10,000 for the silver, with the gold at 1,000 for the ¼oz and 500 for the 1oz. Prices also remain unchanged  $85.00 for the silver, $600.00 for the smaller gold, and $2,500 for the larger, all USD.

The coin looks great again. A close-in image of Sir Alec Guiness in the role, right at the moment that Obi-Wan Kenobi has his monumental duel with his arch-nemesis Darth Vader. Only the annoying composition and copyright information are also present on this reverse face. The obverse, as is required by being issued for Niue Island, features the effigy of Queen Elizabeth II. We often see the Mint of Poland modify this face by incorporating the effigy into a themed design, but that’s not the case here. All the variants are available to buy today from the mint itself, or from sponsors like Minted-UK or PowerCoin.