MDM Week: We round up the week with a look at MDM’s latest Harry Potter licenced coins, from mini-gold to maxi-silver

We’re rounding out our catch-up of MDM issues with a collation of some of their recent Harry Potter releases. It’s hard keeping track of just who has Potter rights these days, with the NZ Mint, the Crown Mint and the Monnaie de Paris all having a toe in the pond, but none of them have gone as far as MDM on the ambition front.

There are the usual coins here, of course, along with many coloured silver issues we haven’t covered here, but the multi-layer ‘Hogwarts School’ coin is quite special in any context, doubly so as a popular culture franchise release. It won’t be cheap, and there are only 199 of them, but what a terrific centrepiece to a Harry Potter fans collection that would be!. For those with a smaller budget, the Golden Snitch is certainly eye-catching and capable of fulfilling the same role, and there are pieces for the more traditional coin enthusiast here as well. All told, a very varied selection.

HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY 1KG

This one is an incredible piece of coin art. Tipping the scales at a kilo, it uses MDM’s multi-player process, the one that has made such a hit of their architectural series iv er the last few years. This imparts a feeling of depth on the coin like no other, but that’s all irrelevant if the design isn’t up to scratch. Fortunately, there are no problems in that department.

Summing up the smash-hit fantasy world of Harry Potter in a single coin is quite an achievment, but the designer has managed to cram many of the most iconic elements in here. The multi-layer (in this case, eight) process has its roots in architecture, so it’s perhaps fitting that Hogwarts, the magical school, is the main focus. The multi-layers aren’t really in evidence with Hogwarts itself, with relief on the school being relatively slight in comparison to how far it sits over the background, but it works to maximise the sense of depth overall.

The heavily concave background has all five of the main crests laid out on it, each sitting with plenty of relief of their own. As we said, a striking piece overall and about as good as a Harry Potter coin could be.

THE GOLDEN SNITCH

The weirdo of the selection, this is a snitch, the ‘ball’ used in the flying broomstick game of Quidditch. It’s formed in three ounces of silver and then fully gilded and is quite the coin for the Harry Potter fan. MDM has a bit of a history with spherical coins, like the Blue Marble and Moon issues, so this is obviously an evolution of those.

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HARRY POTTER COMMEMORATIVE GOLD BAR

A relatively simple affair, it’s a well known group image of Potter and pals, but the use of five-grams of gold is unusual, and means it will be relatively more affordable than most of this genre. The packaging is neat as well.

HARRY POTTER SILVER NOTE/BOOKMARK

We were quite pleased to see this one as silver foils have taken a popularity dive over the last year or so, as mints move back onto more familiar territory. MDM are pushing this as dual use, as both a collectable, and as a bookmark, although I wouldn’t want a €50 bookmark to worry about.

The best part of this one isn’t the design, which is decent enough, but the fact it’s the first in a series that will be multi-franchise. The second one will be for Game of Thrones (looking forward to that one), and then Lord of the Rings.

HARRY POTTER COMEMORATIVE MINIGOLD

Minigold coins are always popular, despite, or maybe because of, their tiny size. It does mean you can pick up gold for an affordable price and the quality of the strike of these coins has risen quite a bit over the last decade, This one seemsdetailed enough for its 11 mm diameter and the packaging is comprised of a very neat ‘credit-card’ style blister, much like the NZ Mint did with their Disney series a few years ago.

SPECIFICATION
COIN MULTI-LAYER KILO GOLDEN SNITCH COIN BAR SILVER NOTE MINIGOLD
DENOMINATION $25 Samoa $5 Samoa $5 Cook Islands $1 Samoa 50 Tala (Samoa)
COMPOSITION 0.999 silver 0.999 silver 0.999 gold 0.999 silver 0.9999 gold
WEIGHT 1,000.0 grams 93.3 grams 5.0 grams 3.0 grams 0.5 grams
DIMENSIONS 100.0 mm 35.0 x 85.0 mm 24.0 x 14.0 mm 150.0 x 70.0 mm 11.0 mm
FINISH Antique Proof-like Proof-like Proof-like Proof-like
MODIFICATIONS Ultra-high relief Dimensional, gilded None Colour None
MINTAGE 199 2,022 2,500 20,000 5,000
BOX / C.O.A. Yes / Yes Yes / Yes Yes / Yes Sleeve / Yes Blister