With around two dozen issues to date, Star Wars bullion, from both the New Zealand Mint, and from MTB-PAMP, has obviously been a great success, especially since mintages were reduced to more collectible numbers since the early issues, and more variety was introduced into the depicted scenes and characters.

The latest is a good example, featuring that iconic scene in the first film, where Princess Leia entrusts the plan to the Death Star to her droid, R2-D2, birthing a franchise that continues almost 50 years later. It’s a straight-up bullion coin, so there’s little in the way of background, and the border is quite large, but it sums up the scene perfectly, and with a 10k mintage, sure to be equally popular.

APMEX also have a gold one-ounce variant with a mintage of just 100 pieces. At the time of writing, that entails an investment close to $4,500, which is a hard sell to the Star Wars collector.

With minigold bars and coins enjoying increased popularity, we’re always pleased to see new themes and styles joining the club. Namco’s incredibly iconic Pac-Man video game has appeared on coins and rounds before, as you can see in our thematic guide to video game coins, even in gold. PAMP’s additions are some of the best to date.

The minigold bar, a gram in weight, depicts on its reverse, Pac-Man about to swallow one of the ghosts that feature so prominently in the game. On the obverse, a mix of elements from the games, including the ghosts, and the fruit. A simple design, it works in encapsulating a simple game. The bars are packaged in a plastic slab, although they aren’t graded. Very cool.

Showing considerably more design flair than the gold bar, the 45th anniversary coin absolutely screams ‘Pac-Man’ at you. Shaped like the title hero swallowing the anniversary logo, it’s vibrantly coloured, as if a modern interpretation of the crude original game character. The obverse carries over that mix of tiny elements from the gold bar, although it looks much better here with the enhanced relief.

The packaging is spot-on, with the colours from the game prominent, and a great image of the game screen on the front of the box, which has a display window. A great homage for the fans.

PAMP have done a fantastic job with their Fender Guitar franchise, dividing it between an eclectic mix of guitar-shaped coins celebrating the colourful past of the legendary instrument maker, and silver guitar picks, which can actually be used to play. This latest release belongs to the latter group, and is a ten-gram sterling silver piece, decorated for Christmas.

As always, well packaged, and although the holiday theme doesn’t appeal to me personally, it will make a great gift for the headbanger!

Finally, we have a new addition to PAMP’s quite expansive Coca-Cola range, and it’s this beautiful five gram gold bar. The size is still within the reach of many collectors, whose buying power has been decimated of late by the incredible rise in the spot price of gold, but we’d now consider this the top end for many, and a nice drop from a more traditional 1/4oz coin.

It’s a terrific design, in my opinion, eschewing the more obvious commercial imagery for a softer side of the brand, delving into the companies traditional holiday tropes. The back of the bar is equally well realised, and the packaging continues the style. There’s no mistaking what the subject is, but it works, regardless. A fine example of the sympathetic use of an overly commercialised brand, to make something with wider visual appeal. First class.