Guards of the Empire shows off the ubiquity of the Clone Trooper army for its second issue

To say there are a few Star Wars coins on release over the last few years would be an understatement, so we don’t doubt that the New Zealand Mint is finding it more difficult to come up with new ideas. Fortunately, we think that were bang on target with the new Guards of the Empire series that debuted in January.

That coin featured the Imperial Stormtroopers that sprung to life in the Original Trilogy, but this one goes back in Star Wars time, but forward in ours (George Lucas apparently can’t count…) to the Prequel Trilogy. The Clone Troopers are functionally the same as their Imperial versions, basically serving as ubiquitous cannon fodder, and as a sign of the reach and power of the protagonist. The familial resemblance is also very clear.

It’s that ubiquity that is highlighted so brilliantly on these 1oz rectangular coins. A coloured image of a Clone Trooper in action is overlaid on an army of identical soldiers fading into the distance. It does a great job of showing off the countless hordes of identical troopers. By contrast, and typically of NZ Mint issues, the obverse is a boring effigy of Queen Elizabeth II. We’d love to see some customisation here, which is something increasingly common with Niue issues.

Packaging is superb, the mintage is down to 2,000 pieces and it sells for around $85.00 USD. Available now.

CLONE TROOPERS

Introduced by the later prequel trilogy, although also widely employed in the award-winning animated series, the Clone Trooper was also known as the Republic soldier, and came before the Imperial Stormtroopers we all love to hate. Bred on Kamino using the bounty hunter Jango Fett (father of Boba Fett) as a template, they initially fought against Battle Droids in the Separatist Crisis. With their minds unwittingly twisted by a chip implanted by the rising Sith, they responded to ‘Order 66’ by wiping out the Jedi they were created to fight alongside.