CIT continue their minigold coin bonanza with five new half-gram releases
One of the earliest and certainly most eager proponents of the half-gram ‘minigold’ format coin, Liechtenstein-based and collector favourite Coin Invest Trust (CIT) have launched some more of these increasingly popular coins today. CIT usually launch when there’s a major coin show on somewhere on the globe and this time it’s the turn of the 2017 Singapore Coin Fair. We’ve added a few minigold coins released for the Berlin World Money Fair last month as well.
Nobody will ever associate minigold coins with outright value on a price per ounce basis, that’s not the point. With fixed costs for design, production and distribution, etc., one shouldn’t expect them to cost the same per ounce as a gold bullion coin, but the main point of these is that they make gold coins affordable. Even better, the new Big Gold Minting (BGM) technique developed by CIT and German mint BH Mayer, is allowing smaller weights of gold to be struck in bigger sizes.
These new coins are a good example of the technique. Formerly stuck at 11 mm in diameter, BGM minted minigold coins have stretched out to 13.92 mm. While that doesn’t look huge on paper, the reality is quite different. An 11mm diameter coin has a surface area of 95²mm. At 13.92mm, the surface area expands to an incredible 152²mm, all of which helps make the design clearer. We’ve already seen it applied to larger weights as well, their Pope Francis coin showing the benefits clearly.
This new batch of five coins are a mix of the traditional and the unusually shaped, both of which CIT have a long history with. Mintages range from 5,000 up to 15,000 and all come encapsulated with a certificate of authenticity, but not a box. Not coins for the gold stacker, collectors seem to love these with a whole raft of mints, including usually conservative Eastern European ones, embracing the format. We think they have a great place in the market, encouraging people into collecting and the wide range available means finding an affordable fine (99.99% pure) gold gift for someone is easy.
2017 LAUGHING BUDDHA MINIGOLD COIN
The sister to the new gilded silver Laughing Buddha coin which we’ll look at elsewhere, this one fits neatly into CIT’s long running shaped minigold series. Struck with the producers innovative BGM technology, it spans almost 14mm across instead of the traditional 11mm.
MINTS DESCRIPTION: The Budai is a depiction of Maitreya, the future Buddha, successor to the present day Buddha. In Europe and the Americas, however, Budai and Buddha are often not differentiated. The laughing Buddha symbolizes contentment and happiness.
2017 GOLDEN DOLPHIN MINIGOLD COIN
Another coin from the unusual shaped range, it’s the second themed around marine life to be released recently. This one is a traditional 11mm in size so eschews the use of Big Gold Minting. A pretty cool dolphin-shaped item with a 15k mintage.
MINTS DESCRIPTION: The Golden Dolphin expands a long and hugely popular list of special shape small gold coins. The charming and beloved dolphin seems to happily leap into the air and is struck in the series’ typical two layer style, weighing a half gram of .9999 fine gold measuring 11 mm. The marine life theme, however, was introduced at the Berlin World Money Fair 2017 with the Golden Sea Turtle, a uniquely shaped and stylized turtle minted with BGM© technology and thus measuring an astounding 13.92 mm at half a gram weight.
2017 SEA TURTLE MINIGOLD COIN
The first marine themed minigold coin this year, it’s also the only one to benefit from BGM, although we’d imagine the shape of this one was better optimised to benefit from it.
A companion to the shaped Sea Turtle silver coin released at this years Berlin World Money Fair, it’s also shaped like its subject.
MINTS DESCRIPTION: Once again, the silver coin’s theme is carried over to small gold version that depicts a stylized sea turtle in a unique shape and a simplifed relief.
2017 FIDEL CASTRO MINIGOLD COIN
Fidel Castro is the second subject in a series that started last year with the awesome silver Chinggis Khan re-release. Because of the limitations of the small amount of metal involved, it isn’t possible to replicate the excellent smartminted silver coin, so they’ve returned to the standard round format.
The coin does benefit from the increased diameter made possible by Big Gold Minting and the artwork follows the silver very closely, which is a good thing as it’s a fine design.
MINTS DESCRIPTION: The gold coin presented alongside the silver issue nearly mirrors it in design. Thanks to CIT’s Big Gold Minting© process, the size of the gold coin increased from 11 mm to 13.92 mm while at the same time retaining relief height and detail.
2017 POPE BENEDICT 90TH MINIGOLD COIN
One of the many papal coins that are released in Europe, this one is a pretty standard affair design-wise. Round in shape and with a nicely detailed picture of Pope Benedict, this one employs BGM but is only 11 mm in diameter. Amazingly, CIT have managed to get an 11mm coin from just 0.3g of gold, a one-hundredth of an ounce. This coin is issued for the Cook Islands rather than the usual Palau or Mongolia.
MINTS DESCRIPTION: Pope Benedict XVI’s papacy lasted from19 April 2005 until his resignation on 23 February 2013. The unexpected move marked the first time a pope voluntarily resigned sinceCelestine V did so in 1294. Benedict XVI now resides at the Mater Ecclasiae Monastery in Vatican City and will turn 90 years old on
16 April 2017.
The new 11 mm fine gold coin commemorates this anniversary in classic style. Thanks to BigGoldMinting© technology, the coin weighs a mere 1/100th of an ounce while displaying an astonishingly detailed portrait of the pope.
SPECIFICATION
| COIN | DENOMINATION | COMPOSITION | WEIGHT | DIMENSIONS | FINISH | MINTAGE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BUDDHA | $1 PALAU | 0.9999 GOLD | 0.5 g | 13.92 mm | B/UNC | 15,000 |
| DOLPHIN | $1 PALAU | 0.9999 GOLD | 0.5 g | 13.92 mm | B/UNC | 15,000 |
| TURTLE | $1 PALAU | 0.9999 GOLD | 0.5 g | 13.92 mm | B/UNC | 15,000 |
| CASTRO | 1,000 TOGROG | 0.9999 GOLD | 0.5 g | 13.92 mm | B/UNC | 5,000 |
| BENEDICT | $5 COOK ISLANDS | 0.9999 GOLD | 0.31 g | 11.0 mm | PROOFLIKE | 10,000 |
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