Magic the Gathering back after a hiatus with a new silver coin featuring Liliana, the Planeswalker

It was way back at the beginning of 2014 that we first reported on a new licence acquisition for the New Zealand Mint that would be appearing on a range of proof silver coins. Released just a few months later, Jace the Mind Walker kicked off a Magic the Gathering series. Given that over 10 million people regularly play the game, you would have thought a 5,000 mintage silver coin would sell out quite quickly, but it doesn’t appear to have been the case as there were no further releases.

After briefly dabbling with another card game franchise, Yu-Gi-Oh!, it all went quiet. Well, the mint is back with a second Magic the Gathering issue and it closely follows the format of the 2014 debut release. A one-ounce coin in a rectangular format, it has plenty of space to reproduce the Liliana Vess card art, the character a beautiful, cunning, and ambitious necromancer. The art by Magic the Gathering regular, Anna Steinbauer, is colourful and attractive, and the way the mint has left the crowd of figures along the bottom free of colour works well in reminding you this is fine silver and not a paper card.

There’s little here that an avid MtG fan wouldn’t like, but it remains to be seen if a silver coin is even on the radar of a group that often spends hundreds of dollars on a single card. There are certainly no issues with the presentation. The wide acrylic block is perfect, and the certificate and outer shipper are themed to match the franchise. The mintage of 5,000 matches the original Jace coin from 2014, but while the price is a little lower this time around, it’s still $120.00 USD, so quite a bit more expensive than the equivalent Star Wars or Disney coin. Regardless, it looks the part and is available to order now. Quite a few of our sponsors sell these.

MAGIC THE GATHERING

Magic: The Gathering (MTG; also known as Magic) was the first trading card game and was created by Richard Garfield and introduced in 1993 by Wizards of the Coast. Magic continues to thrive, with approximately twelve million players as of 2011. Magic can be played by two or more players each using a deck of printed cards or a deck of virtual cards through the Internet-based Magic: The Gathering Online or third-party programs.

Each game represents a battle between mighty wizards, known as “planeswalkers”, who employ spells, artifacts, and creatures depicted on individual Magic cards to defeat their opponents. Although the original concept of the game drew heavily from the motifs of traditional fantasy role-playing games such as Dungeons & Dragons, the gameplay of Magic bears little similarity to pencil-and-paper adventure games, while having substantially more cards and more complex rules than many other card games.

An organized tournament system and a community of professional Magic players has developed, as has a secondary market for Magic cards. Magic cards can be valuable due to their rarity and utility in gameplay.