Harry Potter and the Order of the Giant Headed Coins. Chibi comes to Hogwarts

After the hugely successful debut of the New Zealand Mint;s Chibi coins with the sell out Batman, the concept returns with a first dip into the world of Harry Potter. Choosing to kick off with the distinctive title character, it’s a solid indicator that Chibi is going to be a true multi-franchise affair,set to expand further into the Star Wars Universe later this year as well.

What is Chibi? It’s a cultural phenomenon that originated in Japan, and in the West, is mostly known for its small, chubby caricatures with undersized bodies and oversized heads – also known by the term super-deformed (SD). This is a popular style in anime and manga, and also with the ubiquitous Funko figures that caricature characters from numerous popular culture franchises.

Batman obviously struck a chord with collectors, although whether they were coin collectors of fans of the genre is unclear, so it seems the mint has opened up something new, and is to be applauded for that. To be honest, while the genre itself is not something I’ve dived into very deeply, the Batman issue was a cool coin in its own right and the samples we saw in January were superbly done We have equally high hopes for the finished Harry Potter coin.

Again, they’ve managed to both distort the look of the character, yet keep it instantly recognisable to the wider audience. An ounce of 0.999 silver in weight, standing around 36 mm in height, it deserves to do well with Potter fans. This mint has done some fine collectibles for this franchise, chief amongst them the excellent House Banner foils, but they don’t seem to have captured the imagination of collectors in the way that Star Wars has, despite the comparitively similar fan bases.

The same tight 2,000 mintage for this one, with the price set a little high at $95.00 USD, but early appreciation of the first issue has made that less important, with some dealers selling out at much higher prices. Super presentation with a neat custom capsule, it’s available from today.