The bottle-cap coin is back with the launch of an uber-iconic Coca-Cola design from Fiji

Last year, Coin Invest Trust released a highly unusual coin in the shape of a metal bottle-cap. Celebrating the Bavarian Purity Law enacted by Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria on 23rd April 1516, it was shaped like a bottle cap. It sounds a simple thing, but is apparently a difficult thing to strike and a good reason why the market isn’t flooded with them. It has taken a while, but the concept has reappeared with one of the biggest and most iconic brands in the world attached to it.

Coca Cola is a force of modern marketing and it’s a surprise that they’ve never had a serious representation in the numismatic world before. If you’re going to do a Coke coin, the bottle cap format is absolutely perfect for it. There are differences from the original CIT coin. That one was just 2.5 grams in weight – this one is much bigger at 6 grams, and while the first cap-coin had colour on its top surface, this one has full coverage of the sides as well. It’s an impressive achievement.

Issued for Fiji, the inside-obverse of the coin depicts that island nations emblem along with inscriptions detailing the date and denomination.Packaging is very well done. A tin with a bottle-cap lid holds the coin and it all comes in a themed outer shipper box. Definitely attractive to the memorabilia market.

There’s much to like here – priced at $29.95 USD, it’s eminently affordable, even for six grams, and the brand has massive staying power. Disappointments are few. It’s exclusive to Modern Coin Mart and eBay, so buying options are very limited (although LPM in Hong Kong have a preliminary listing for them) and while we’ve seen the mintage is to be 25,000 pieces, that number is strangely missing from the primary sales page, so awaiting confirmation. Graded and slabbed versions should be available soon, although we’re not fans of that here and the suggested $50.00 uplift in price is a tough sell. Overall though, a great concept and one that looks to be proving popular. We’ll have to wait for Berlin’s World Money Fair to see if CIT will be releasing more of their own.

2018 COCA COLA BOTTLE CAP SILVER COIN

COCA-COLA

One of the most iconic brands in history, Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a simple carbonated soft drink invented in the late 19th century. Named after kola nuts and coca leaves, a couple of the original ingrediants, Coca-Cola was bought from its inventor John Pemberton, by Asa Griggs Candler, who through some impressive marketing, turned it into a market dominating product.

In 2015, Coca-Cola was said to be the world’s third-most valuable brand, behind Apple and Google, and in 2013 their products were served up in over 200 countries worldwide to the tune of 1.8 billion servings per day. They now produce a wide range of variants of their base product and have a long-standing competitor in Pepsi-Cola, a competition that Coca-Cola have been winning for years.

One of the most iconic items in Coke history has been their ultra-famous glass bottle. Called the “contour bottle”, it was created by bottle designer Earl R. Dean and was patented in November 1915. Said to be inspired by a picture of the gourd-shaped cocoa pod in the Encyclopædia Britannica, it was revised in 1923 and has become the most famous bottle design of all time. It is topped with a metal cap that has inspired the new coin.

SPECIFICATION

NAME 2018 COCA COLA CAP
DENOMINATION $1 Fiji
COMPOSITION 0.999 silver
WEIGHT 6.0 grams
DIAMETER 32.6 mm
FINISH Proof-like
MODIFICATIONS Dimensional, coloured
MINTAGE 25,000 (TBC)
BOX / COA Yes / Yes
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