While the New Zealand Mint’s Chibi series remains the king of the hill, a few other producers have released coins that are similar in concept, but having their own style. LPM’s Street Fighter coins, The Coin Company’s movie coins, and Crown Mint’s Marvel issues are all examples of shaped character coins, and as you can see, most are themed around popular culture franchises.

Enter Precious Metal Collectors with something a little different. There’s been a big rise in the number of coins depicting the ancient Chinese myths, like the ‘Romance of the Three Kingdoms’ for example, but most are higher-end strikes, and with a more serious interpretation of the stories. PMC’s new coin, however, is considerably more light-hearted, quite appropriate given the Monkey King is the subject.

Popularised by a 1979-80 Japanese TV show that ran for 52 episodes, the tale of Sun Wukong, the trickster god. PMC describe the story “From the popular Chinese novel ‘Journey to the West’, known as 西遊記 in Chinese, the story tells of Tang San Zang and his disciples travelling to the West to retrieve Buddhist sutras. The Monkey King is central to the story and is a trickster god who was born of a magical rock. He was thrown from the Emperor’s court for impertinence, but did achieve enlightenment afterward”

The Japanese ‘super-deformed’ style of caricature art has been used to good effect on this ten-gram silver coin. The Monkey King is depicted on a cloud, something fans of the 40yr old TV show will appreciate, and is struck to a proof finish, and fully coloured. At 32 x 24.5 mm in size, it’s a good size for the weight of metal, and looks well presented in a box with a C.O.A. Just 1,000 pieces will be minted. Available to order now, it should ship around September time.