With Star Wars experiencing a creative resurgence after taking a bit of a battering from six less than brilliant films, it’s of little surprise that the cause of it, the new television series, have become the focus of the New Zealand Mint. Essentially a peripheral character, ‘Baby Yoda’ went on to become the merchandising hit of the last two years, and the character now known as ‘Grogu’, has already put in an appearance on several NZ Mint coins.

The latest is this shaped one-ounce coin depicting Grogu in his iconic floating ‘pram’. It’s all a bite cutesy, but there’s no arguing with the design and the focus of it. We reckon this one will be very popular, although do note the 10,000 mintage is higher than many other coins of its type. Available from today.

It was only in December 2021 that APMEX issued its last videogame history based bullion and numismatic coin range. That one was Ms. Pac-Man, which itself followed Pac-Man. This latest coin features another absolute classic of the early arcades – Galaga. The vertically scrolling shooter was a huge hit, and it’s now celebrating its 40th anniversary. APMEX have actually hit on a terrific idea for this series, as there are countless classics from the time that could be part of this series.

As before, there are gold and silver bullion variants, that we’ll cover in our bullion round-up today, but on the (semi) numismatic side there are a pair of silver coins. The first is a proof version of the bullion design, complete with box and certificate. The second is a coloured coin, with an uncirculated finish. This one carries a design that pulls many elements from the base coin, but has been heavily tweaked with a gaudy, early-80’s pixel look. All have the same Niue emblem obverse and all are available now. Mintages are way down, making this particularly attractive.

The sixth Faces of the Empire coin, this numismatic journey through the helmets of Star Wars, has now landed on the Death Trooper. As we’ve said before, these have a style that hovers between the realistic and the Chibi look. They’re very well presented, fairly easy to pick up with a 10k mintage, and beautifully struck.

An unlikely subject for an Australian producer, but John Wayne is obviously popular enough to justify continuing the series with a 2022 issue. A one-ounce proof coin, it depicts a coloured ‘The Duke’ on horseback, with a cactus-strewn ‘Western’ background. The packaging is very much on point, and the John Wayne fan will probably find much to like here.

Harry Potter on coins continues to be a big thing, despite the lack of actual new movies to go and see. The most active issuer of Potter coins is undoubtedly German producer MDM, who has a very wide and eclectic range, which you can read more about HERE. This one depicts the first movie, thankfully with its original title, rather than the dumbed-down one they came up with for the US market.

It’s a rectangular, one-ounce proof coin, with colour, and five zirconia crystals embedded in it. The presentation looks neat, but on the whole, a pretty unambitious design for MDM.

The Crown Mint’s ‘Super-deformed’ Japanese anime-style look at Marvel Superheroes continues on its 24-coin run with Loki, the Norse god of mischief. Following Captain America, Iron-Man, Black Panther, and Thor, we now have a superb little Loki to add to the mix. Fresh off his own television mini-series, Loki is a hugely popular part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and they’ve done a terrific job here.

Each coin comes in a custom capsule in a themed blisterpack. There’s an autoship subscription where the Crown Mint will ship you the latest coin every month ($99.95 each) and with the third coin (Black Panther) comes a collection box. You can also buy one separately for $29.95, and it holds 12 pieces.

Along with Loki comes an equally brilliant Deadpool. I’m biased, as I absolutely loved the movies, so its great to see the Crown Mint pull off the character so well. Its packaged the same as Loki, and comes with the same options.

The New Zealand Mint is already working its way through the Star Wars universe with its ‘The Faces of the Empire’ series, and for 2022 is adding a ‘Faces of Gotham’ range in an identical style. As it’s Gotham, you won’t be surprised to see its most famous inhabitant, Batman, get released first.