Bond’s iconic undersea Lotus Esprit S1 represents the legendary spy’s celluloid journey through the 1970s

With a debut just four weeks ago, the Royal Mint is already following up it’s look at the film career of the legendary spy, James Bond, with the second of seven coins in the series. Each issue will showcase the films from a specific decade, and after the 1960s, we have the 1970s, so the mint is releasing chronologically.

The 1970s saw Bond go in a different direction, with Roger Moore taking over the role in 1973, and starring in four of the five movies released in that decade. Moore bagged the role after the first to follow Sean Connery, George Lazenby, walked away after just one film. Connery returned for the 1971 hit, Diamonds Are Forever, but Live and Let Die finally handed over to Moore, whose films had a more light-hearted touch, with the increased use of gadgetry, and exaggerated scenarios.

Despite the post 1979 Moore entrants dipping off in quality, his first three films were enjoyable affairs, and well regarded by fans. Inspiration for the Royal Mint coin design comes from the third of them, The Spy Who Loved Me, which featured a white Lotus Esprit S1, that could convert into a submarine. It was all quite exciting at the time, and we can certainly see why the mint chose it. It seems vehicles are the subjects of choice for this series, if the first two coins are a reliable indicator.

Apart from the car in place of the autogyro, and the movie titles in the background, this is essentially the same design as the first issue. Not the most imaginative coins, they do have a simplicity about them that is attractive enough. Fans should be pleased enough, especially with the wide range of three gold, and three silver formats on offer. We’ve not had info on the bullion variants, but we find it hard to imagine they won’t be coming soon. There’s a bas-metal version for the casual collector not wanting to dig deep. All are available now.