A striking lunar snake, a clever elephant, and Gryphon, a stunning homage to classic Greek numismatics, stand out in CIT’s Spring Launch
A mix of rock music, wild animals, Asian culture, heroism, and a stunning look at our numismatic past, feature in CIT’s Spring launch
Mint of MK continues its extravagant interpretation of the zodiac symbols with the addition of Taurus, Cancer, and Gemini
Mint XXI opens up the Spring season with a stunning range of coin issues. Here are the first three that caught our attention.
T&S Coin follows Sparta with another great legend of the Ancient Greek world – the Trojan War
Stackable bullion continues to reach new heights of design with kilo versions of CTK’s Ganesha and Lucifer issues

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QUICKLOOKS

05Mar 24

One of the longest running series we’ve ever covered at AgAuNEWS, Deadly and Dangerous debuted in 2006 with the Red Back Spider, a coin that went on to garner enormous interest on the secondary market. It was a striking coin, but despite interest in the series reducing somewhat, no doubt due to the huge influx of competing designs, it remains a perennial part of the numismatic release schedule.

This 19th issue features the Bluebottle, known elsewhere around the world as the Portuguese Man o’ War. The reverse face of the coin features an attractive image of this extraordinary creature, with the animal itself, and the area above the surface of the sea, highlighted in colour. The undersea environment is cleanly struck, forming a neat contrast.

As has been the case since 2021, there are one-ounce silver and one-ounce gold versions of the coin, each using metal of 0.9999 fineness. Unusually, the silver coin is struck for Tuvalu, a staple place of issue for the Perth Mint that strikes this version, and has the memorial effigy of Queen Elizabeth II on its obverse. The gold coin is issued for Niue, and carries the King Charles II effigy instead, this one by Jody Clark. Both formats are available to order now. Check out our comprehensive Coin Series Profile of the range for full details of this, and the 18 earlier issues.

DENOMINATION	COMPOSITION	DIMENSIONS	FINISH	MINTAGE
$1 TVD (Tuvalu)	31.1 g 0.9999 silver	40.9 mm	Proof	2,500
$100 NZD (Niue)	31.1 g 0.9999 gold	38.6 mm	Proof	150

DOWNIES

AgAunews coin series profile

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27Feb 24

Our updating of various Coin Series Profiles continues today, with another pair of coins added to the New Zealand Mint’s copious, and quirky range of pop-culture parodies. For those unaware, Chibi is based on the Japanese art-style called super-deformed, whereby a character is depicted with a huge, outsized head.

There are now over 150 coins in this series, quite some feat given it’s only four years old, and for ease of collection, they’re divided into numerous themed subsets, such as Marvel Comics, Star Trek, and Harry Potter. The two biggest subsets are Star Wars, and DC Comics, and it’s these two that gain new additions this month. Grand Admiral Thrawn joins Star Wars (actually the sub-subset ‘Ahsoka’), and Poison Ivy lines up with the DC pantheon.

Both also have the 10% chance of getting a fully gilded variant. The boxes are sealed, so you won’t know if you have one until it’s opened. Gilded coins carry a big premium on the secondary market, but we can’t say we’re fans of the concept. If you want to offer a gilded version, stick $30 on the price and sell them. Random chance has no place in numismatics, in my view, but your mileage may vary. As always, these are appealing for fans, very well struck, and nicely presented, with a price of $99.00 USD.

DENOMINATION	COMPOSITION	DIMENSIONS	FINISH	MINTAGE
$2 NZD (Niue)	31.1 g 0.999 silver	variable x 36.0 mm	Proof	2,000

AgAunews chibi series profile

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27Feb 24

A long-running series from the National Bank of Poland, ‘Enduring Soldiers Accursed by the Communists’ is a celebration of the freedom fighters that gave their lives fighting the Soviet Union immediately after the end of the Second World War. Today sees the issue of the 17th coin in the series – Zygmunt Szendzielarz ‘Lupaszka’.

Each half-ounce sterling silver coin depicts the soldier on its reverse face, and nothing has changed for this issue. The source material is often photographs of the period, and the mint tends to do a fine job with the likeness as a result. The coin is struck to a proof finish with some small colour highlighting, and the obverse carries that neat Polish national eagle.

One of the most impressive things about this series are the detailed histories that the bank provides in its media pack, and we’ve reproduced it in full, not just for Lupaszka, but for all the coins to date, in our up-to-date Coin Series Profile of the range. The stories are well worth a read, spotlighting a brutal, and little-known struggle, which goes some way to explaining Poland’s current stance about Russia. Available to order now.

DENOMINATION	COMPOSITION	DIMENSIONS	FINISH	MINTAGE
10 Zloty (Poland)	14.14 g 0.925 silver	32.0 mm	Proof	10,000

NATIONAL BANK OF POLAND

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27Feb 24

It’s a favourite subject of mine, so it’s fair to say the Czech Mint’s three-year, twelve-coin look at the tanks of the Second World War, was always going to get a Coin Series Profile, and that is indeed the case. The coins have been released at the rate of four per year, one each from the Soviet Union, Britain, the US, and Germany annually.

The latest issue is the American coin for 2024, and features the M26 Pershing heavy tank, a model that arrived in the European theatre in early 1945, too late to have a real impact, but showing a promise that bore fruit in the Korean War. The M26 is depicted in the coin centre, with a silhouette at top, and a track pattern around the bottom.

There’s a one-ounce silver variant, and a tenth-ounce gold, and both are available to order now. The next issue is due in August, and will be the Panzer IV, followed in October by the MK VI Crusader, and wrapping up in November with the IS-2.

DENOMINATION	COMPOSITION	DIMENSIONS	FINISH	MINTAGE
$1 NZD (Niue)	31.1 g 0.999 silver	37.0 mm	Proof	1,000
$5 NZD (Niue)	3.11 g 0.9999 gold	16.0 mm	Proof	250

CZECH MINT

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LATEST SITE UPDATES

15/04: COIN SERIES PROFILE – Added 2024 issue and special edition to Art Mint’s Mandala Art guide

09/04: THEMATIC GUIDE – Added 2 new Hulk Comix coins to the Marvel Comics Thematic Guide

03/04: BULLION PROFILE – A brand-new profile covering the Germania Mint’s Germanic Runes silver bars

02/04: COIN SERIES PROFILE – Completely refreshed and brought up-to-date the Esoteric Centres Antiqued CSP

27/03: BULLION SALES PAGE – Updated all 6 graphs of Perth Mint & US Mint bullion numbers

26/03: COIN SERIES PROFILE – Added 3 new issues to the Fine Art Bi/Tri-Metal Max CSP

25/03: COIN SERIES PROFILE – Added Bluebottle to the Deadly & Dangerous CSP

24/03: THEMATIC GUIDE – Added multiple new issues to the NZ Mint Star Wars coin guide

LATEST SITE NEWS

Just a quick update on the site at the moment

Mik Woodgate2024-02-06T21:15:29+00:00February 6th, 2024|

Just a quick update on the site at the moment As some of you are aware, we attended the World Money Fair in Berlin late last week, and honestly, after three years of not attending (two down to Covid) it was terrific to meet folks again. We [...]