Disney Pixar’s latest blockbuster gets a rare five-coin set from New Zealand.

The Disney juggernaut continues to steer its way through numismatic land with a bigger than usual set from the New Zealand Mint. With the Disney Classic series concentrating on the core characters and anniversaries with a range of clean-struck coins, there has been a parallel succession of coloured coins themed around more modern Disney properties. With the Disney Princesses series (now wrapped up), Frozen, and the new hit Moana all recieving silver tribute, it’s hardly surprising that a movie doing huge numbers would also get attention, although it’s late coming.

Finding Dory is the sequel to the monster hit Finding Nemo from 2003. A truly massive hit, Finding Nemo was almost inevitably going to get a sequel, although it was held up after disagreements between Eisners Disney and Steve Jobs from Pixar. Disney buying Pixar negated those differences. Released over the summer, Finding Dory has already broken the billion dollar barrier in box-office takings and has garnered much positive comment from critics and moviegoers alike.

The coins are straightforward enough. Coloured proof silver is a staple of the mint and they do them well. Imagery used on the reverse faces is bright, colourful and consistent, depicting all the major characters from the film.  Collected in a bigger version of the NZ Mints superb acrylic display frames, this is clearly targeted at the gift market and with the holidays just around the corner it should find plenty of takers. While the mintage is very high at 30,000, it should be noted that only a small portion of those are being made available by the mint as the rest were produced for a specific buyer and yet to surfacee.

Available from now, the set will sell for $420.00 USD. It should have huge appeal to Disney fans, although it’s unlikely to have coin collectors queuing up, but that’s typical of popular culture coins like these that often bring in many new collectors to the marketplace. A solid entrant in what is turning out to be an epic Disney portfolio from this Auckland-based mint.

Bailey
Bailey is the Marine Life Institute’s resident beluga whale who is convinced his biological sonar skills are on the fritz. The good news – or bad news, depending on who you ask – is that doctors of the MLI can’t seem to find anything wrong with him. Bailey’s flair for the dramatic never ceases to push his neighbor’s buttons: whale shark Destiny can’t seem to get through to him, no matter how hard she tries. Maybe he’ll listen to new friend Dory, who seems to be full of crazy ideas.

This delightful coin design shows Bailey in the ocean, surrounded by vibrantly coloured coral and seaweed, attempting to tap into his echolocation skills.

Destiny
Destiny may be a clumsy swimmer, but she has a big heart. She has a big everything, actually – whale sharks are the biggest fish in the sea. Destiny resides in the Marine Life Institute, where one day an oddly familiar blue tang named Dory falls into her pool. Destiny is admittedly embarrassed by her obvious lack of grace, a product of poor eyesight, but Dory thinks she swims beautifully. And Dory is delighted to learn that her supersized friend speaks whale, too.

This coin design impresses on us the size of the whale shark, as the image of Destiny swimming in the water almost fills the entire space!

Marlin & Nemo
Marlin knows how it feels to lose family, and it was Dory who helped him find Nemo not so long ago. He realizes he has no choice but to pack up his nervous energy and skepticism and embark on yet another adventure, this time to help his friend.

Nemo is back to being a normal kid: his harrowing adventure abroad doesn’t seem to have sapped his spirit. In fact, when Dory remembers pieces of her past and longs to take off on an ambitious ocean trek to find her family, Nemo is the first to offer his help.

This stunning coin portrays Nemo and Marlin swimming together amongst the coral reef.