Captain Picard kicks off a new six-foil series featuring the Next-Gen crew of the Enterprise-D

Star Trek in its many forms is no stranger to the modern collectible coin market. Initially the licence was run by the Perth Mint, who released several series over the next few years, and continue to do so. In the convoluted world of media licencing, however, the Royal Canadian Mint also started to issue some coins, and recently, the New Zealand Mint has joined the mix with several series of silver foils and some superb silver miniatures.

The latest issue from the NZM is a second series of foils featuring Star Trek: Next Generation. The first series was a little unusual in eschewing the banknote-style format in favour of a wider portrait style, and in showcasing the work of an official ‘fan-artist’, Juan Ortiz. This new series is back on familiar ground, using both the banknote ratio, and depicting characters from the show.

This will be a six-foil series, and it’s kicked off with the big boss himself, Captain Jean-Luc Picard, soon to get a new TV series of his own on CBS. He will be followed by Riker, Troi, Data, La Forge, and Worf. Collectors of earlier series of Star Trek, or indeed Star Wars foils, will know what to expect. A part coloured and part engraved set of images mean these are bright and bold, but also sporting some banknote-like detail. These aren’t going to convert anyone to the format that wasn’t already a fan, or appeal to anyone outside of Star Trek lovers, but those are big categories, and the mintage has been reduced from the old 50,000 pieces, to 10,000 – a much more realistic number.

The obverse side has Q in the middle of it. Q as in Queenie, and not the great character acted by John De Lancie in the series. This first issue comes with a very nice quality stiff-backed album that holds all six foils perfectly. Subsequent foils come only in a paper sleeve, which you can see below. Remember, the album is only available with the Picard foil and is not sold separately. At $39.00 USD per foil, these are pretty affordable as far as memorabilia goes, although the average silver stacker will have a coronary at the equivalent spot price. Available to buy now, they ship from September 02.

STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION

Running for seven years between 1987 to 1994, at the time it was one of the most eagerly awaited television series in history and passed through early quality issues to become widely admired in the genre. It remains the most watched of all the Star Trek series and eventually 178 episodes were shot before the cast moved on to make several movies. The show was very popular, reaching almost 12 million viewers in its 5th
season, with the series finale in 1994 being watched by over 30 million
viewers.

The third series in the Star Trek franchise, it is the second sequel to Star Trek: The Original Series. Set in the 24th century, when Earth is part of the United Federation of Planets, it follows the adventures of a Starfleet starship, the USS Enterprise-D, in its exploration of the Milky Way galaxy.After the cancellation of The Original Series in 1969, the Star Trek franchise had continued with Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973–74) and a series of films, all featuring the original cast. In the 1980s, franchise creator Roddenberry decided to create a new series, featuring a new crew embarking on their mission a century after that of The Original Series.

The Next Generation featured a new crew that starred (for the majority of its seven-year broadcast run) Patrick Stewart as Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Jonathan Frakes as Commander William Riker, Brent Spiner as Lt. Commander Data, Michael Dorn as Lieutenant Worf, LeVar Burton as Lt. Commander Geordi La Forge, Marina Sirtis as counselor Deanna Troi, Gates McFadden as Dr. Beverly Crusher, and a new Enterprise.