Back in September 2015, amidst a run of new coins featuring the old Norse deities, a new nine-coin series of antiqued silver coins debuted called Norse Gods. Despite the launch being blunted somewhat by a plethora of similarly themed coins also announced in the same timeframe, so many in fact that we ran an Ancient Gods Week to cover them all, the coins cool design and relatively cheap price in what is a mid-high end genre, helped keep interest high. The first pair took no chances and went with the most popular and well known of the Norse gods, Odin and Thor. The next pair arrived in November and featured two less well known deities, Hel and Tyr.
Again, there are no surprises with the design of the new Loki And Heimdall coins featured here. Both are extremely well known characters, featuring prominently in the new, hugely popular Marvel Comic Universe series of movies, so subject recognition certainly won’t be a problem. Both also have fine design, and at two ounces in weight with a selling price around the €100 mark, they’re good value as well. The 1,000 per design mintage remains unchanged, and the coins come boxed with a Certificate of Authenticity within. With six coins now out, only three remain and as we speculated in our last article, we’d imagine these will be out before half the year is up. The intense release schedule goes some way to negating the low per-coin price, but it will suit some and all coins released to date remain fairly easy to pick up at bigger dealers like Top World Coins, Powercoin, MB Coincorner and Muenzdachs, the coins always seeming to appear at the last of those first.
Not the most ambitious of the new wave of Viking-themed coins, we think these are nevertheless a great range of coins, decently priced and building into a nice set. Available to pre-order now.
DESCRIPTION
In Norse mythology, Heimdallr is a god who possesses the resounding horn Gjallarhorn, owns the golden-maned horse Gulltoppr, has gold teeth, and is the son of Nine Mothers. Heimdallr is attested as possessing foreknowledge, keen eyesight and hearing, and is described as “the whitest of the gods”, and keeps watch for the onset of Ragnarök while drinking fine mead in his dwelling Himinbjörg, located where the burning rainbow bridge Bifröst meets Asgard, the world of the gods. Heimdallr is said to be the originator of social classes among humanity and once regained Freyja’s treasured possession Brísingamen while doing battle in the shape of a seal with Loki. Heimdallr and Loki are foretold to kill one another during the events of Ragnarök.
In Norse mythology, Loki is a god or jötunn (giant). Loki is the son of Fárbauti and Laufey, and the brother of Helblindi and Býleistr. By the jötunn Angrboða, Loki is the father of Hel, the wolf Fenrir, and the world serpent Jörmungandr. By his wife Sigyn, Loki is the father of Narfi and/or Nari. By the stallion Svaðilfari, Loki is the mother—giving birth in the form of a mare—to the eight-legged horse Sleipnir. In addition, Loki is referred to as the father of Váli in the Prose Edda.
Loki’s relation with the gods varies by source; Loki sometimes assists the gods and sometimes behaves in a malicious manner towards them. Loki is a shape shifter and in separate incidents he appears in the form of a salmon, a mare, a seal, a fly, and possibly an elderly woman named Þökk (Old Norse ‘thanks’). Loki’s positive relations with the gods end with his role in engineering the death of the god Baldr and Loki is eventually bound by the gods with the entrails of one of his sons. In both the Poetic Edda and the Prose Edda, the goddess Skaði is responsible for placing a serpent above him while he is bound. The serpent drips venom from above him that Sigyn collects into a bowl; however, she must empty the bowl when it is full, and the venom that drips in the meantime causes Loki to writhe in pain, thereby causing earthquakes. With the onset of Ragnarök, Loki is foretold to slip free from his bonds and to fight against the gods among the forces of the jötnar, at which time he will encounter the god Heimdallr and the two will slay each other.
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