‘He really is a groovy cat, a gentleman, a scholar, what a numismat’. The Pink Panther turns 60, and the Perth Mint has a bullion coin

The slick and suave pink pussycat, The Pink Panther, first saw the light of day as an animated opening sequence for the film of the same name, back in 1963. An absolutely hilarious classic, the Blake Edwards directed movie didn’t just spawn eight sequels of varying quality, and a pair of reboots in the early 2000s starring Steve Martin (which stank), but also launched Fritz Freleng’s cartoon feline as a standalone show.

The first of over 125 productions debuted in 1964, complete with the now iconic theme tune by Henri Mancini, and was called The Pink Phink, which you can see below from the official channel. It’s as popular today as it’s ever been. To give you some idea of how much, the official YouTube channel has some videos that have been watched over 375 million times. The one below is at ‘just’ 75 million!!! Suffice to say, the dude will be a legend for years to come.

This one-ounce silver bullion coin marks the sixtieth anniversary of that debut, and as with The Simpson’s range, the Perth Mint has done a bang-up job with the design (by Lucas Bowers). The cool, casual kitty is depicted just as you imagined he would pose for it, and there’s also the official logo of the anniversary, and a smattering of paw prints in the background.

While the mintage for the coin as a whole is set at 25,000 pieces, in typical Perth Mint style, a limited number will be sold mounted to a themed card, in this case showing a full colour crop of the coin artwork. These are often highly sought after, and only 1,000 of them will be offered this way. Given the subject, we can imagine it being particularly popular. It’s available to order right now, so if you want the rinky-dink panther, don’t hang about