Tokelau’s twelve-coin sea life bullion coin series hits its half way mark with the Loggerhead Turtle

Now in its sixth year, the Tokelau Sea-life silver bullion coin series has hit its half way mark with the launch of the latest Loggerhead Turtle design. Following the Kakahi (Yellowfin Tuna) in 2014, the 2015 Mokoha (Great White Shark), the 2016 Hakula (Sailfish), the 2017 Kapoa (Barracuda), and last years Mago-Taguta (Leopard Shark), the 2019 Fonu is the first issue to feature a reptile instead of a fish.

This has always been a quite attractive series, and although the quality of the first issue was lacking, they’re decently struck these days. With the greatly increased competition in the 1oz limited run bullion coin market, the mintage of this sixth coin has been curtailed heavily. Earlier issues topped out at 250,000 pieces, but for 2019, it’s down to just 20,000 coins. To be honest, we’d call that a positive given the plethora of options available now.

The Loggerhead design is a good one, with excellent perspective and a little habitat to fill out the reverse face. The obverse is the same one that has adorned the series since its inception, complete with the Ian Rank Broadley effigy of Queen Elizabeth II. There are no signs of a move over to the newer Jody Clark version, but with six years left to run, that may yet happen. Available now, it can be bought singly, in tubes of 20, or monster boxes of 500.