Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s the NZ Mint’s latest striking miniature featuring Superman

We were quite surprised by the Captain Kirk miniature released by the New Zealand Mint back in April. A departure from their core range of coins, it was a circa-150g figurine in fine silver that featured a classic pose of the Star Trek icon. While we’re expecting there will be a further release in that range, the jump to the DC comic world was another nice surprise.

If you’re going to start offering DC Comics miniatures there are really only two characters to choose from for maximum impact – Batman or Superman. The mint has chosen the latter of the two as its debut piece and while it’s arguably the less interesting of the two icons, they’ve done an outstanding job with the realisation of this hugely popular character.

Facially the mint has gone fairly neutral. They haven’t chosen a specific visage for the miniature, but what they’ve gone with is clearly on point. The pose by sculptor Alejandro Pereira Ezcurra is perfect. Hugely dynamic and just as you’d expect, it’s packed with detail and is anatomically spot-on. The base cleverly replicates the characters ultra-famous shield emblem and is itself mounted into a likewise-shaped pedestal.

Just 1,000 pieces of this 100 mm tall miniature will be produced and it comes well presented in a heavily themed box. The production number is marked on the base of the figure. As you would no doubt have guessed by now, this isn’t cheap, but it is quite a unique and very high quality item. Selling for $550.00, we’d expect dealers who sold the first one to also get this one in, including  site sponsors Coin Shoppe and Minted-UK.

Having seen the Captain Kirk figure in hand, we can safely say that the quality of the Superman one is likely to be equally top notch. Whether you think this one is better than Kirk or not will depend on where your interest lie, but we think this one is even better than the first issue and I’m no Superman fan. An interesting diversion from the NZ Mint, it will be interesting to see how successful they are and what comes next. It’s certainly an experimental year in Auckland.

SPECIFICATION
DENOMINATION Not Applicable
COMPOSITION 0.999 silver
WEIGHT 150.0 grams
DIMENSIONS 8-10 cm
FINISH Antique
MODIFICATIONS None
MINTAGE 1,000
BOX / COA Yes / Yes
NEW ZEALAND MINT