The New Zealand Mint’s new Mickey Through the Ages series is having its second release. Working its way through the history of Mickey Mouse’s long and varied movie career, the series started in late June with one of the characters most iconic role, The Band Concert from 1935. Fast forward three years to 1938, this second coin features The Brave Little Tailor, another much-loved cartoon.

Like the previous release, this one is available in a newly expanded range of four formats, the new kid on the block being a minigold (0.5g). An increasingly popular format, the first coin looked great at this size. Suspended in a credit-card style package, they’re an inexpensive way to get Disney gold. The other formats are NZ Mint regulars. A coloured one-ounce silver, a ¼oz gold, and the less common 1oz gold. It’s fair to say there’s something for most budgets here.

Only the silver coin carries colour, a good choice in our view as colour suits gold far less than silver. A clean, simple design, keeping faith with the original cartoon, it depicts Mickey in tailor attire, leaning on his scissors, and apparently talking. The obverse is the usual Queens effigy by Ian Rank Broadley, surrounded by inscriptions of her name, the issuer (Niue), the denomination, and the date.

Packaging is identical for the big three coins. A nice quality wooden box and a brightly themed shipper box make it very nicely presented. The coins should be available later today at $85.00 for the silver, and $2,500.00, $620.00, and $75.00 respectively for the golds (all USD).

Brave Little Tailor is a 1938 American animated short film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by RKO Radio Pictures. The cartoon is an adaptation of the fairy tale The Valiant Little Tailor with Mickey Mouse in the title role. The film was directed by Bill Roberts and features original music by Albert Hay Malotte. The voice cast includes Walt Disney as Mickey, Marcellite Garner as Minnie, and Eddie Holden as the king.

Brave Little Tailor was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film at the 11th Academy Awards in 1939, but lost to Disney’s own Ferdinand the Bull. In 1994 the film was chosen as the 26th greatest cartoon of all time by members of the animation field. The list was compiled in the book The 50 Greatest Cartoons.

The story is about a young peasant tailor (Mickey Mouse) who is mistaken for a giant killer and sent on a quest by the king to subdue a giant that is terrorising his kingdom. He offers the hand of the Princess Minnie in marriage.

The giant appears and Mickey runs and tries to avoid it but Mickey sneezes and gives away his hiding place in the giants makeshift cigarette. The giant tries to squash Mickey, but being a tailor, Mickey pulls out his sewing thread and needle, and binds the giants limbs. This causes the giant to fall and knock himself out.

Mickey returns a hero and the king builds an amusement park on the site that’s powered by the giants snoring. Mickey and Minnie get married.