Hit comic series Yi Soon Shin gets a smartminted silver coin companion series from CIT

Any list of the greatest admirals in history would undoubtedly feature Yi Sun Shin (April 28, 1545 – December 16, 1598). At a time of war with Japan, this incredibly talented military leader won every battle he fought in, decimating Japanese fleets time and again. At the Battle of Myeongnyang, he took a fleet of 13 ships and defeated a Japanese armada of 133. Destroying 31 of the enemy ships with no loss of his own, his innovative use of heavily armed turtle ships helped negate Japanese superiority in numbers and hand-to-hand fighting skills.

A popular new comic book series called Yi Soon Shin is doing a fine job of taking the history and popularising it for modern audiences and the publisher has taken the unusual step of producing a silver coin series to run alongside it. In a clever move, one playing on the comic market trend for specials, each coin will come with a limited edition copy of issue one of the comic, signed by writer Onrie Kompan. It will also come with a limited print signed by the artist Giovanni Timpano. The comic will run to three sets of four and the coin series will equally finish after twelve issues, so it’s possible that each subsequent coin will also come with equivalent extras.

Produced by Coin Invest Trust, the two-ounce fine silver coin uses their proprietry smartminting technology, so a mix of intricate detail and ultra high-relief certainly won’t be an issue. All the hallmarks of the ancient mythology coin genre are present – rimless, UHR and an antique-finish. Depicting the armoured Yi Soon Shin holding a sword with warriors in the background, it’s a good looking coin that will tap into the growing interest in Korean history and mythology, best typified by the popularity of the Chiwoo Cheonwang bullion rounds from KOMSCO.

The obverse is a nice mix of the obgligatory elements of a Cook Islands issue (effigy, denomination etc.) and the decorative (a party look at a pair of katana). At 60mm, the diameter is 20% bigger than typical for this type of coin and the packaging is custom designed and very appealing, especially as it features something comic book fans love – exclusive new artwork.

An interesting addition to a popular field of modern numismatics, we’d wager that the comic book market will take most of these given the attractive presentation. Selling for $249.99 USD each, a series of twelve of these will be a hard sell for anyone not a hardcore fan of the comic, but given the popularity of the Yi Soon Shin books, there may be enough. A good debut, we’ll be watching this series in future with high expectations. Available now from the comic books own webshop, or from Powercoin.