Malta, and the Mint of Poland celebrates some of Europe’s iconic city clockfaces, with seven silver coins, starting in the Czech capital, Prague

We’ve covered a lot of the New Zealand Mint’s (now Agoro), ‘Chibi’ series of silver coins, and we mean A LOT… Launching in June 2020 with Batman, by the time the range was ended in early 2024, over 150 of them had been released, and I was exhausted writing about them. It remains one of our biggest Coin Series Profiles, so feel free to have a look at that to catch-up on the range to date.

If you don’t know what Chibi is, it’s basically short, huge-headed caricatures of various pop-culture characters, and the style originated in Japan. It’s also known as Super-Deformed, and is very popular in manga and anime.

After a year’s break, something that we feel was a good decision, it’s back, and it’s with the mints relatively new Major League Baseball franchise, that it’s kicking off, along with another new franchise, the hit animated series, Avatar: The Last Airbender. You can see the new ones, and the ones coming out over the next few weeks, below. Rather than add these to the existing Chibi profile (which is too big for its own good, to be honest), we’ll put a second one together soon. Enjoy.

AVATAR: THE LAST AIRBENDER

AANG

Telling the story of 12-year-old Aang, Avatar: The Last Airbender, despite its Asian art style and story, is actually an American production. In this world, the Avatar is someone that can telekinetically manipulate all four of the elements – air, fire, water, earth – and bring balance to the four groups. It’s full of interesting characters, and a well-developed setting, which, combined with a great story and quality writing, meant it was a huge hit, even garnering a live action remake last year, that was also highly regarded.

The first non-sport Chibi to appear in Agoro’s second phase is the lead character from Avatar, Aang, Animated characters seem to do particularly well in the conversion to the big-headed chibi-style, and Aang is no exception. It’s an impressive conversion, and as you’d expect from Agoro, the presentation is excellent. This will be an ongoing series, with the next coin to debut on 11th August, and it features Katara, another major character.

KATARA (Coming on 11 August)

MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL PLAYERS

SHOHEI OTANI - Home variant

SHOHEI OTANI - Road variant

MOOKIE BETTS - Home variant

MOOKIE BETTS - Road variant

The first of what we’re calling the second wave of chibi, ties in with Agoro’s winning of the licence to produce coins for Major League Baseball (MLB) last year. Released last month were the first pair, both players for the LA Dodgers, Shohei Otani, and Mookie Betts. Joining them next Monday will be Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees, and Ronald Acuna Jr, of the Atlanta Braves. You’ll have to wait until 28th August for the next pairing, which will consist of the Philadelphia Phillies star, Bryce Harper, and Houston Astros legend, José Altuve.

We’d imagine specific ones of these being bought by fans predominantly, rather than collectors getting them all. Apart from the intensely partisan nature of most sports, including MLB, they’re also a little samey for the coin collector, perhaps. For those that remember the 2023 issues in the first chibi wave, you’ll no doubt have mixed feelings about the return of an old feature. Most issues in 2023 had packaging that didn’t let you see inside the box, because randomly distributed throughout the 2,000 mintage were 200 fully gilded coins, so basically you had a one-in-ten chance of getting the gilded coin.

We weren’t fans of the idea, although we can see why many would love it, but it’s back for the MLB Players range. The difference here is that instead of gilding, the variant comes with a different (grey) uniform, which is called the ‘Road’ variant. We’re fairly certain this will be a hit with the sports fans, so we’re not criticising Agoro for it. Whatever your opinion, these remain a highly collectible item in the sports memorabilia genre, and would make a fine gift for the MLB fan.