Steampunk debuted in 2020, and this 2025 coin is the sixth in the series to date. Aesthetics are a personal opinion, of course, but I reckon Aviation is the best in the series to date, which given the sky-high standard of this series, is no mean feat. This range takes the steampunk concept, that esoteric mix of futurism and Victorian technology, in many different directions, which you can see in our Coin Series Profile.

This one, as you’ve probably deduced from the name, is about the skies over the steampunk city, and it packs in the legendary amount of detail the series is known for. Pride of place goes to an open-cockpit monoplane, adorned with so much gadgetry it has the aerodynamics of a house-brick. Little nods to the previous five issues are buried within it, as is the obligatory Penny Farthing bicycle, which shows up in every issue, and can be seen here at the bottom of the coin. The selective gilding is well-placed, and the whole vista is quite sublime. The angled image lower down, showing the high-relief, should show just how outstanding a strike this is.

The common obverse, itself a fine design, returns again, and the coin comes in a floating frame with a custom insert, as do all the coins featured here. While this is a three-ounce coin, we’d expect a one-kilo variant to appear later. I think this one is big enough to show the design in all its glory.

Taking inspiration from a famous aerial photograph, this coin is the surprise hit of the Summer Launch for me, and will be up there as my coin of the year come December. CIT have a penchant for the abstract, with issues like their Silver Burst, and Silverland collections immediately springing to mind. Dunescape is quite like that, but is more about perspective, and is firmly grounded in reality.

It’s a simple piece, showing us a drone-style shot of a classic desert, and on one ridge, is a small three animal camel train, led by a solitary person. This is all about the shadows, however, and it lifts the coin to new heights, just as it did with the photograph. Elongated because of the relative positions of the slope and the sun, they offer a new perspective on what is a simple thing. The high relief enhances the effect, with soaring dunes. As someone who’s ridden a motorbike up the face of truly huge dunes in Morocco, I can attest the scale here is not only realistic, but restrained.

There’s a neat texture, aping the wind-blown ripples in the sand, but apart from that, it remains a fundamentally simple design, and is all the better for it. The obverse is basic, just having that same rose-gold plating from the reverse, but the reverse is the star here. A stunning release.

“Et tu, Brute?” is one of the most famous phrases in history, despite not actually being said by the man attributed with it, Julius Caesar. They’re said to be his last words, spoken to one of his assassins, and his friend, Marcus Junius Brutus, but it’s more likely another of those literary flourishes attributed to Shakespeare. On the infamous Ides of March (15th) in 44 BCE, Brutus led a group of conspirators, the culmination of a concerted campaign by
Roman politicians to reign in Caesar’s excesses, and desire for greater
power, and killed him. In the greatest irony of all, his death led directly to the
replacement of the Republic with an Emperor, subjecting the Roman people
to such leaders as Nero, Caligula, and Caracalla, among others.

The coin reverse depicts the two combatants back-to-back, Brutus in his senatorial robes, and Caesar in his uniform, and with the laurel wreath around his head. A Gladius stands between them, inscribed with SPQR, and the border is notched 23 times, representing the number of times Caesar was stabbed. On the obverse there’s a battle scene with Caesar on horseback, leading a charge, which is quite appropriate, as he was a superb military man.

It’s a fine coin, tapping into CIT’s uncanny knack of doing human faces, both of which look suitably imperious here. The coin is presented in a floating frame with a custom themed insert, and only 500 of these two-ounce coins will be produced. A series we’ll be keeping a close eye on, as there are plenty of subjects to choose from, like Wellington/Napoleon, and Cromwell/Charles I, for example.