Silver coin notes meet popular culture head on with a new original Star Wars series

Popularised by Coin Invest Trust last year with their range of city-based Skyline Dollars, the banknote coin format attracted a few extra members in 2017, most notably with the New Zealand Mint bringing their Disney juggernaut to play. We feel that 2018 will either be the year the format explodes in popularity, or is destined to remain a small niche part of the market.

There are fewer licences more likely to attract attention than Star Wars, so it’s a boost to the fledging format when the NZ Mint debuts a new six-note series to tempt collectors. For those unfamiliar with this type of coin, they’re made of silver and are generally 150 x 70 mm in size – the same general size as the banknote they look like. Just a fraction of a millimeter in thickness, despite the huge size compared to a standard coin they weigh a scant five grams.

Obviously with a canvas so large to work with (a standard 1oz coin is around 1200² mm in area, these are 10,500² mm), the artwork can be more adventurous and that’s certainly the case here. Whether that’s a plus or minus point is in open to question, but there’s no question this first banknote-coin is a bold piece. Depicting Luke Skywalker in both colour and fine line-art (just like a banknote) on the reverse, the obverse is done in line-art only, detailing everything you’d expect to find on a standard coin.

Each coin is sealed to prevent handling damage and comes in a slipcase. This first coin also comes with an album into which all six A New Hope coins will fit. That’s a great idea and plenty of encouragement for collectors to get a set together. At $39.00 USD per coin, they’re eminently affordable compared to a usual one-ounce coin, and thus more attractive to the casual movie memorabilia collector. That’s a large market and these could well bring in new numismatic collectors. Available to order today from the NZ Mint website, or from our sponsors like Powercoin or Minted-UK.