Bayern Munich’s Polish football legend, Robert Lewandowski, stars in his own high-relief silver coin series

Despite how massive the popularity and financial clout of the modern sporting star, it isn’t often that any of them make the transition to the coin world. It doesn’t matter if it’s current racing drivers, boxers, or Olympians, numismatic issues are few and far between. We get coins for tournaments and events, of course, but rarely individuals. It’s especially perplexing when it comes to the true giants of sport, football stars, but the Mint of Gdansk are looking to change that with a multi-year programme showcasing the career of Polish centre-forward, Robert Lewandowski.

Lewandowski is a legend, not only for his Polish international performance but also in Germany, where he’s spent the bulk of his national career, for the last eight years with German champions, Bayern Munich. As you can see from his career highlights in the image below, he has impeccable credentials as a genuine superstar of the game, but it still takes a leap of faith to commit to a coin series for an individual, because football fans are incredibly partisan, which will restrict the potential customer-base straight away. Fortunately, Lewandowski is top-level popular in Poland and Germany, two coin-loving countries, but kudos to Mint of Gdansk regardless.

Like their ‘The Witcher’ series, the Lewandowski range kicks off with a pair of silver coins, one at two-ounces in weight, and the other at a kilo. The 2022 coins are titled ‘Talent’, and focus on his early period in the sport that was to make his name. The two differently sized issues carry completely different designs on both faces, although both have an inset football on the reverse face. It appears to be porcelain on the kilo, and 3D-printed on the smaller sibling. Both coins are fully antique-finished, and have the serial number engraved on the edge. Each is nicely boxed with a Certificate of Authenticity.

As we said earlier, this is an ambitious series, encompassing 56 individual coins over a seven-year period. Joining this pair will be one-ounce, and tenth-ounce gold coins, as well as five-ounce, and ten-ounce statue-coins. This type of programme has been employed on the aforementioned ‘The Witcher’ range, so the producer has a good track record with undertaking something like this. A good debut, it’s going to be fascinating to watch a sportsman’s career unfold on coins over an extended period. The two-ounce coin has a reduced price for early sales on the Mint of Gdansk website.