Mint XXI opens up the Spring season with a stunning range of coin issues. Here are the first three that caught our attention.

It’s going to be a busy week with many producers releasing their Spring collections, and we’ll do our best to chip away at them, although it will be a shallower dive than usual. We’ll have a mix on Friday, CIT on Thursday, and Mint of MK tomorrow, but today, we’re starting with a producer that rarely disappoints – Mint XXI. Today, they’re launching eleven new coins, and we’re going to have a look in small groups, starting with three historically themed stunners, all additions to series that have impressed us in the past.

The Femina Bellator series kicked off last April with a beautiful Valkyries design, followed in November with the equally impressive Amazons. This time, Mint XXI are showcasing the Sarmatians. This was a nomadic people, centred around modern Iran, and living around the coast of the Black Sea from the 3rd century BCE, to around 400 CE, absorbing the Scythians in the process, and perhaps coming from the earlier kurgan people (remember Highlander!!).

They were an equestrian people, fine horsemen, who also had a tradition of women warriors fighting alongside the men. The Greek writers Herodotus and Hippocrates, both noted Sarmatian women (perhaps the source of the Amazons themselves), the former even claiming they didn’t marry until they’d killed a man in battle. What we do know from the archaeology, is that women were held in equal martial regard, sometimes having lavish burials, and almost always found buried alongside male warriors. One of the most famous was Amage, who led the people in the late 2nd century BCE. A striking contrast to the region today.

The coin has no issue maintaining the high standard of the first two, with a similar layout, and a similar level of accurate detail, right down to a decent stab at a Sarmatian helmet. The common obverse returns, but with a new colour and flower for this issue, as in previous years, and the coin comes boxed with a COA. As you can tell, we’re big admirers of this series, and it’s great to see that continue.

FEMINA BELLATOR 03: 2024 SARMATIAN

Second of this trio is another favourite of ours, kicked off early last year with a quite superb Roman Empire coin, followed in November by the Mongols. Called The Legacy of the Greatest Empires, the series spotlights the biggest, and most successful conquerors in history, emphasising those that endured and left a mark we can see today. This third issue has alighted on the Ottoman Empire.

Centred in modern day Türkiye, this empire endured for over six centuries, finally falling after the First World War. In that time, it grew to dominate much of the Mediterranean, and even threatened the heart of Europe, before falling behind other regional powers, and succumbing to internal division. They were responsible for the final elimination of the Eastern Roman Empire (the Byzantines), after capturing Constantinople, peaking in the mid-15th to mid-16th centuries, especially under the leader Suleiman the Magnificent.

It’s Suleiman that dominates this new coin’s reverse, overlooking his Janissaries (considered the first modern standing army) in battle, and above a map of the empire at its peak. The empire’s crest, beautifully coloured and gilded, takes pride of place at the top of the coin, with inscribed information at the bottom. The common obverse returns, also sporting colouration. A terrific release, adding to one of this talented producer’s finest series, in our view.

LEGACY OF THE GREATEST EMPIRES 03: 2024 OTTOMAN EMPIRE

Finally, we have the second in Mint XXI’s new 12-coin Norse-themed series, The Way to Valhalla. Ragnar Lothbrok was the choice to debut the series in January, and now we have Erik the Red. Erik Thorvaldsson lived around 950-1003 CE, and was a famed warrior and explorer, said to have founded the first successful settlement in Greenland, and dying there, possibly from a winter epidemic. His son, Leif Erikson, went on to even greater fame, accredited with being the first European to set foot on continental North America.

The coin depicts the fire-haired Erik making landfall, armed to the teeth, with longships in the background. He was said to have been a formidable warrior, and he certainly looks that here. The Ragnar coin was a terrific design, and again, Erik the Red keeps that standard up. The obverse is common to the series, and perfectly themed. On this evidence, it seems that The Way to Valhalla is going to shape up into a must-have collection.

THE WAY TO VALHALLA 02: 2024 ERIK THE RED

COIN DENOMINATION COMPOSITION DIMENSION FINISH MINTAGE
SARMATIAN 2,000 Francs CFA (Cameroon) 62.2 g of 0.999 silver 55.0 mm Antique 500
OTTOMAN 2,000 Francs CFA (Cameroon) 62.2 g of 0.999 silver 50.0 mm Antique 500
ERIK THE RED 2,000 Francs CFA (Cameroon) 62.2 g of 0.999 silver 50.0 mm Antique 500