Mint of Gdańsk continues its eclectic tour through the punk universe with a Japanese-inspired ‘Silkpunk’ coin

Continuing their delve into the ‘Punk Universe’, and following their earlier Cyberpunk coin, the Mint of Gdańsk have now turned their attention to a more unusual, but no less interesting genre – Silkpunk. While Cyberpunk draws from the works of many authors, indeed, from several mediums, Silkpunk is largely the invention of American author, Ken Liu, and his much respected fantasy series, The Dandelion Dynasty.

Liu has described Silkpunk as an overall ‘technology aesthetic’, where engineers evolve technology and solve new problems by creatively combining existing components in fresh ways. The use of materials traditionally important in East Asia and Oceania, such as bamboo, coral, silk, & paper, define the aesthetic, and the use of biomimetics – tech having a direct analogy in the natural world, drawing upon natural processes for inspiration – defines the engineering. It’s distinctly different from Cyberpunk, or Steampunk.

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Like it’s 2020 forebear, Silkpunk is a two-ounce silver coin, packed with high-relief, and sporting an antique-finish with colour enhancements. The style here is very different, however. Asian influences abound, from the architecture, the dragon decoration, and the figure holding a katana. The weird tech is also there to see. An airship, seemingly sitting on a junk, complete with rudders, sails overhead, and in the foreground, holding a fan, is a robotic geisha. In a nice little touch, some of the colour is UV in nature, so will glow when the lights go out. You can see it using the slider on the image above.

It’s good to see the obverse getting some custom love and attention. While 2020’s Cyberpunk also had a custom obverse, it was aesthetically tied to the reverse face, so an all-new one equally tied to this coin’s reverse is very welcome. The mechanical dragon design looks great. Available now, the coin comes boxed with a Certificate of Authenticity, and has a mintage capped at 500 pieces. The producer also has a faux Cyberpunk banknote for those interested in that sort of thing.

SPECIFICATION
DENOMINATION $5 NZD (Niue)
COMPOSITION 0.999 silver
WEIGHT 62.2 grams
DIMENSIONS 50.0 mm
FINISH Antique
MODIFICATIONS High-relief, UV Colour
MINTAGE 500
BOX / C.O.A. Yes / Yes