The oldest major professional sports league in the world, Major League Baseball is one of the four big leagues in US sport, along with the NFL (football), NHL (ice hockey), and the NBA (Basketball). It’s made up of 30 teams (1 in Canada), half in the National League (formed in 1876), and half in the American League (1901). The first all-professional team debuted in 1869, called the Cincinnati Red Stockings.

After the infamous 1919 Black Sox Scandal, where some Chicago White Sox players were accused of throwing the 1919 World Series in exchange for payment from a mob gambling syndicate, the sport was cleaned up, growing rapidly in popularity. Today, starting in early April, each team kicks off a 162-game season, culminating in the World Series played between the winners of each of the two leagues. MLB supposedly has the highest seasonal attendance of any world sports league, but with 162 games a season, that’s hardly surprising.

Agoro, formerly the New Zealand Mint, has now added the MLB licence to its extensive portfolio, and their first release is the MLB logo as a one-ounce silver coin. To be honest, it’s actually a pretty neat item, clean and simple, and instantly recognisable. The colour highlighting on both faces is an uncommon thing at the NZ Mint, but really lifts this one, enhancing the look.

The packaging is well done (these boxes are great quality), so a great gift item for the baseball fan, and as it isn’t tied to a single team, one with wide appeal. The mintage of 2,024 actually seems a little low given the popularity of MLB, but Agoro certainly knows better than me on that score. There’s also a five ounce version, but that sold out its 200 mintage before release, so possibly that one has largely gone to a single client. Worth knowing in case you want to try and hunt one down. A cool debut, this is being touted as their first collaboration with MLB, so we’d expect them to mine the considerable breadth of subjects moving forward, much like they’ve done with Star Wars, and other franchises. Available now. If you want to buy, please click the banner below, and we get a small commission at no cost to you.