The first coin marks the Apollo 11 moon landing, back in 1969, when Neal Armstrong undertook the first walk on a planetary body other than our own. The coin takes its name from the now famous statement made by Armstrong, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”. It’s more of a cartoonish design than a realistic one, but that suits the small diameter of the coin by being easier to read. The card art is quite dramatic, again, exaggerated for effect on the front.

This issue is unique here in being a shaped coin, rather than a traditional round one. These are nothing new, with CIT in particular having extensive experience with them, but it’s very rare indeed to see one coloured in any way. It’s easy to see why, given the subject, Little Red Riding Hood, is literally named after a coloured robe. The coin is also quite large compared to the others here, reaching out to 22 x 15 mm. I have to say, the card mount artwork is just phenomenal, on both sides. A clever little release.

The famous card playing dogs on the 1903 painting by Cassius Marcellus Coolidge are the inspiration for this one. It’s quite unreasonable to expect an artwork like this to be reproduced on so little metal, so Silver Pours have encapsulated the work in the coolest way. The dog paw and the four aces work brilliantly, and gave me a little chuckle. There’s a custom obverse as well, and a reproduction of the original artwork on the card mount.

The Benjamin coin is one of the more unusual of the selection here, combining some of the American coin tropes we all know, along with their own name. It’s my least favourite of the six coins here, although the card mount artwork featuring Benjamin Franklin, and the $100 bill, is very well done.

One of the great coin designs, the Britannia has appeared on countless coins in history, but I bet never on something that weighs so little! It’s a classic, pictographic depiction, but instantly recognisable, regardless. A standard Niue obverse, as used by a couple of the other coins here. The card artwork is quite dramatic on the front, but very classical on the back, which I especially like.

Also done in that thick, pictographic style is the second (following Zeus) in the producers ‘Greek Mythology’ series. Again, kudos to Silver Pours for encapsulating the theme in a simple image. As we said before, these use 16 times as little gold as even a half-gram minigold, so to expect relief is completely unrealistic, but they’ve managed to do something neat even so. That standard Niue obverse is employed again, and the card art is on point.