Dune. Arrakis. Desert Planet. The movie of Frank Herbert’s epic sci-fi novel hits the bullion world via APMEX

Easily one of the most complex and well regarded science fiction creations of all time, Dune is an incredible tale, spanning generations of events over expanses of space almost incomprehensible in scale. That it manages to do so while focusing on the interplay between the factions and characters within it is quite astonishing. Throw in themes of cult-hood, manipulation, drug dependence and ecology, and it should be obvious this is no Buck Rogers, or that we love it here. Made into an eclectic movie by David Lynch back in 1984, the failure of that reinforced the notion that the novels are unfilmable, but Denis Villeneuve has created a movie launching right now that covers the first half of the first book, and is garnering some great reviews.

This new silver bullion round series from APMEX is firmly rooted in the Villeneuve movie, taking its iconography directly from it. There are two base rounds, one featuring the symbol of the good guys, House Atreides, the other the big bads, House Harkonnen. They share a common obverse with the movie logo overlaid on a sand dune background. Also available are the same designs but with the logos highlighted in colour. Joining that pair is a third coloured design, and our favourite of the three, which depicts the giant sandworm of Arrakis that is part of the cycle creating the spice Melange. A very unique design. The coloured coins come presented in a slab.

Finally, there’s a terrific set which has a round in it with a unique design. Coloured on both faces, it’s a simple, but striking affair. However, it isn’t the main attraction. Inside the wooden box that holds this set is a glass vial in which is stored 3.1 grams (0.1oz) of gold grains. No doubt meant to look like a vial of Melange, it’s a cool way to add the yellow metal instead of another coin. While the rest of the rounds have an unlimited mintage, the set is capped at just 500 pieces. I want one! The whole range is available to pre-order now, with shipping from early next month. A very cool release.

DUNE by Frank Herbert

Dune is a science fiction media franchise that originated with the 1965 novel Dune by Frank Herbert and has continued to add new publications. Dune is frequently cited as the best selling science fiction novel in history. It won the inaugural Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1965 and the 1966 Hugo Award, and was later adapted into a 1984 film, a 2000 television miniseries, and a 2021 film. Herbert wrote five sequels, the first two of which were presented as a miniseries called Frank Herbert’s Children of Dune in 2003. Dune has also inspired some traditional games and a series of video games. Since 2009, the names of planets from the Dune novels have been adopted for the real-world nomenclature of plains and other features on Saturn’s moon Titan.

Frank Herbert died in 1986. Beginning in 1999, his son Brian Herbert and science fiction author Kevin J. Anderson published a number of prequel novels, as well as two sequels which complete the original Dune series (Hunters of Dune in 2006 and Sandworms of Dune in 2007), partially based on Frank Herbert’s notes discovered a decade after his death.

The political, scientific, and social fictional setting of Herbert’s novels and derivative works is known as the Dune universe or Duniverse. Set tens of thousands of years in the future, the saga chronicles a civilization which has banned all “thinking machines”, which include computers, robots and artificial intelligence. In their place, civilization has developed advanced mental and physical disciplines as well as advanced technologies that adhere to the ban on computers. Vital to this empire is the harsh desert planet Arrakis, the only known source of the spice melange, the most valuable substance in the universe. (Source: Wikipedia)