Code of the Future silver coin series moves from A.I., FTL travel, and immortality, to the quest for time travel

The fourth in the Mint of Gdańsk’s ‘Code of the Future’ series of two-ounce silver coins is now available to pre-order. This series looks at what will be the big existential questions for humanity moving forward. The release schedule for this series has always been a little haphazard, with the first two issues, Artificial Intelligence, and Speed of Light, having their debut in 2016, and the third, Immortality, arriving in 2019 (with a 2018 date of issue).

This fourth release features another of the great questions that science craves an answer for – Time Travel. While we know that travelling close to the speed of light creates a differing experience of it (time dilation), most of us are more intrigued by the possibility of travelling into the past. Despite all the esoteric equations and theories that the physicists seem to churn out on a regular basis, the whole concept remains in the realms of fiction, at least until we’re considerably more advanced technically.

Even though the coins in this series follow a similar format, there’s quite a variety of styles within it. The first two were quite clean in appearance, slick and appropriately futuristic, while ‘Immortality’ greatly increased the detail in the background, and introduced a glow-in-the-dark effect on the coloured section of the reverse face. This 2022 coin is quite different, with a tremendous amount of background detail, and a far smaller amount of foreground colour. Depicting scenes of the past, present, and future, all in lowered areas, it’s a clever, but busy look at this complex subject.

One of the strengths of ‘Code of the Future’ has been the themed obverse designs reflecting the coin’s main subject. That’s also the case here, an equally complex design with what looks like the internals of a watch. The effigy of Queen Elizabeth II sits in the centre, seemingly timeless. The coin comes boxed with a Certificate of Authenticity, and the mintage is capped at 500 pieces.