WHEN IS A DESIGN NOT A DESIGN

There’s an interesting thread over at the Silver Stackers forum regarding the mineral insert in a Mineral Arts Hogwarts coin and one worth highlighting because of the wider implications. What we call art-architectural coins are without doubt one of the highlights of modern numismatics. Employing high-end techniques, great design, and quality strikes, the genre is one of the most impressive and long-lasting out there.

Many, actually most of the these coins, have inset within them a piece of mineral or glass of one form or another. Often taking the form of a window through the coin, these are striking and often attractive additions to a design. They’re also either natural, or hand-made, and therein lies the topic of discussion. How far away from the official mint images (or artwork), can the insert look before the integrity of the design is compromised? They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but pre-release artwork instills expectations.

It must be understood that anything natural or hand-made will vary in look; indeed, that’s often the point, and that has to be accepted. On the other hand, the mint has a responsibility to live up to its own marketing material, after all, this kind of coin is bought on the aesthetics.Where the balance lies is a matter of interpretation. If you think your coin is too different, then talk to the dealer that sold it to you first. Most like to look after their customers and should want to keep you happy.

The most important thing to remember is that buying on pre-order before actual coins are out there means buying from either a CGI render/line-art of the design, or a photo of a prototype. There will inevtiably be differences. It often pays to wait until coins are in the wild and then ask a good dealer to select you a coin that looks as close to the official images as possible, but don’t expect a perfect match. If you do, then perhaps this type of coin isn’t for you. Opinion on the Hogwarts coin in the thread seems split so personal taste is clearly the thing.

2015 BULLION KANGAROO COIN

A topic of discussion over the last few weeks has been the realisation that the debut of the Knagaroo silver bullion coin from the Perth Mint, wasn’t actually for 2016 as initially advertised. Some 300,000 of these were minted for a US supplier called CNT Inc. and dated 2015 with a slightly different finish. They were also struck in 0.999 silver instead of the 0.9999 of the unlimited mintage 2016 coin.

Whatever has occured, it now appears that where it was thought the entire mintage would end up being sold through the United States, some 50,000 of the coins will now be offered directly by the Perth Mint in Australia, and through some Australian bullion dealers. Announced on the Perth Mint bullion blog this week, the availability date should be known shortly, but expected to be in July.

There’s an interesting article over at NewCoinReleases.com

CHEKOV ACTOR ANTON YELCHIN DEAD

With Star Trek being such a big property in coins at the moment and plenty more on the way, it would be remiss without saying a few words about the news that broke just a few hours ago about the death of Anton Yelchin. The young Russian actor has played Chekov in the J.J. Abrams rebooted series of films for a few years now and was sadly killed in a freak accident by his own car.

Our thoughts go out to the family of this young talent who will be missed by the whole community of Star Trek fans who took his superb portrayal of Chekov to heart. A sad loss.

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