Last April, Powercoin started a new series to sit alongside its retro-themed techstalgic range, except this time, featuring software rather than hardware. The series, called ‘Back to the Pixel’, kicked off with the now legendary Microsoft Paint, a piece of art creation software that is still in use today, and an integral component of Windows.

No such luck for the second subject in this quirky range. MSN Messenger was a much-used instant messaging app, created in 1999, that was the forerunner to many of the apps we use today, employing text and emojis for communications. However, it was killed in 2013, getting superseded by Skype, which ironically, has also just died after replacement by Teams. This is an incredibly fast evolving market, and we should all give a little nod to one of the OG’s.

The coin depicts a screen filled by MSN Messenger, with a conversation in progress. It’s all very quaint compared to the 4k video, and high-res displays we have today, and captures the archaic interface perfectly. The obverse is a common one, depicting the back of an old-style CRT monitor. My old 21″ Nokia weighed more than a current 75″ LED TV!! The whole coin is very nostalgic to some age groups. It comes boxed, with a COA, and is available to order now.