Disney debuts on the new silver foil banknote-style coin format with Mickey and Friends

Just recently gaining in popularity with CIT’s Skyline Dollar range, silver foils are coins that take on the form of a banknote. They’re formed in five grams of fine silver and reach the not insubstantial size of 150 x 70 mm, managing that by being less than than 0.05 mm in thickness. The coins are sealed in plastic to make them more stable and to protect them from handling. Obviously with a size that large there are ample opportunities for expressive artwork.

The New Zealand Mint have produced a wide range of coins around their flagship Disney licence including such ranges as the excellent Classic Disney and the new Posters series, so it was no surprise that a first move into this new format would have Mickey Mouse on the front of it. Mickey and Friends is a theme used previously by the NZM, mainly for a six-coin series early in the licence period and it was an obvious choice for the foil debut.

The design is a colourful one, perhaps aimed more at the younger fan than the classic Disney afficionado, and depicts the six most iconic characters from the Disney Pantheon. Plenty of background detail in the Disney style rounds out a pleasing enough piece of art. Issued for Niue like the rest of the range, the obverse looks far more like a traditional banknote and as usual, incorporates the Queens mugshot. There’s no colour on this side.

Packaged in a card folder, also brightly themed, the foil will sell for $39.00 USD and has a mintage of 50,000. That’s quite a large mintage, but likely an indicator that the mint is gauging popularity of the new format. It certainly looks like it will have more appeal in the gift/memorabilia market than a traditional coin, but it remains to be seen how coin collectors proper will take to it. Available from later today from the NZ Mint store or from sponsors like Minted-UK and Powercoin.