Legendary gaming icon, World of Tanks, has turned 15, and the Mint of Poland issues a fine coin to celebrate

One of the world’s most popular games has turned 15 years old, and the company that codes it, Wargaming, has just released the biggest update for it in years – Version 2.0. World of Tanks is what is known as an MMO, a massively multiplayer online game, which is a game that is played only in an online form, and with large numbers of other players. WoT has been incredibly popular, and spawned companion games World of Warships, and World of Warplanes. This game simulates battles between teams of armoured vehicles, in different modes, across different maps, and using any of the hundreds of tanks modelled.

It’s a terrific looking video game, and the image further down is of one of the tanks, actually the new one that features on the coin, the German Leopard 120 Verbessert. There are Leopard 1’s currently fighting in Ukraine, but this Porsche-designed medium tank, which debuted in 1965 (although the variants there are from the 80s), is very dated for the modern battlefield. In game, where tanks stop around the 60s anyway, it’s a potent tool. The variant on the coin is a ‘what if’, where the 105 mm gun was replaced by a 120 mm, but the appearance of the Leopard 2 meant that the idea was never developed.

The coin design looks excellent, with the busted viaduct in the background lifted straight from one of the best maps, called Westfield. The perspective is perfect, and the relief nicely layered to create that illusion of depth. The WoT logo sits at the bottom. The obverse depicts a colour rendition of the Westfield map, along with the two capture points. It’s a neat composition.

Like most Mint of Poland coins, this one-ounce silver coin comes packaged in a latex-skin ‘Nimbus-style’ frame, with a themed insert. The back of the slip cover it comes in doubles up as a certificate of authenticity, and the coin serial number is engraved on the edge. You know me, I love a tank coin, and this is a very nice example of the type. The game is also worth a bash, even though it isn’t the most beginner-friendly, but I’m still a World of Warships nut…