There’s been a deluge of popular culture coins kapowing the market over the last couple of years, from Disney to Star Trek, but a perennial favourite has been the comic book world. Especially popular in North America, outside of the Royal Canadian Mint it’s a range of coins struck in the USA that has garnered the most attention.

Various sets based on Marvel and DC Comics have been produced recently, including Spiderman, Captain America, Batman, and The Avengers. A mix of anniversaries and movie tie-ins, it’s the former that this new coin is based on. It’s been thirty years since the publishing of Frank Miller’s fantastic comic book series, The Dark Knight Returns.

Coming out in 1986, The Dark Knight Returns was a bold reimagining of an aged Batman coming out of retirement to clean up Gotham. Full of old enemies like Harvey Dent and The Joker, it painted a much darker and more adult world, and become one of the titles that helped define what has become known as the Dark Age of comic books, where gritty realism has supplanted the cheery antics of past comic book eras, the Golden and Silver ages. Hugely respected, the fight between Batman and Superman was the inspiration behind much of the new blockbuster movie, Superman vs Batman that launched earlier this year.

The coin is much like the aforementioned releases; proof silver with selective colouring, so there are no numismatic boundaries being pushed here. The design however, employs some of Miller’s outstanding art and is well chosen. Struck in two ounces of 0.999 silver, the coin is issued for Fiji. Packaging again is a highlight. A nice themed display box, and another of those very cool solid silver certificates, formed from two grams of silver and featuring two more iconic Batman images from the graphic novel.

At the moment we’ve only seen the coin at MCM and at Harvestor Investments, but we’d guess availability will spread over the next few days. Priced around the $180 mark, it’s a fine package for the comic book nut.

On its publication in 1986, Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns changed the landscape of the graphic novel industry−irrevocably. With its dark vision of Batman’s future and its stunning artwork, The Dark Knight Returns is the epic tale many fans consider the greatest Batman story ever told. 15 years later, Miller’s sequel, The Dark Knight Strikes Again, further redefined the boundaries of the superhero genre

The bone-jarring image chosen for this 2oz legal tender tribute was originally drawn by Frank Miller for the cover of Absolute Dark Knight a single-volume edition combining The Dark Knight Returns and The Dark Knight Strikes Again stories.

Celebrate the 30th Anniversary of The Dark Knight Returns with a new limited edition coin and collectors packaging that spotlights the illustrations of Frank Miller−the artist that re-imagined and re-energized the Batman franchise−a man all have hailed as a master of sequential illustration.

The reverse design features the bone-jarring image of Batman the Dark Knight originally drawn by Frank Miller for the cover of Absolute Dark Knight−color! This image is Frank Miller’s personal favorite portrayal of the Dark Knight.

Issued by the island nation of Fiji as legal tender, the coin’s obverse depicts the Fiji Coat of Arms, the 2016 year-date, weight, purity, and the monetary denomination.