PMC’s latest issue is this very cool motorcycle-themed coin, packed with impressive high-relief, and tastefully antiqued, with some gilded highlighting. From the renders, there appears to be some impressive detailing on both faces, and it encapsulates the world of motorcycling quite well.

The reverse face of the coin almost looks like one of those model kits, with the parts on a sprue. There isn’t just the Harley-style bike here, but a whole host of spares, tools, and accessories, the latter what you’d need for that liberating ride. The background has a nice tyre-tread pattern, and the raised border, complete with chevrons and pistons, frames it. A skull gas mask sits on the bikes’ engine, and is fully gilded.

The obverse is my favourite, with the motorcycle laid diagonally across this face. Alternately gilded racing stripes give the illusion of speed. The same raised frame is also present, and the denomination sits in a gilded corner. The whole face just looks awesome, with lots of detailing, right down to cables, cooling fins, and springs. The placing of it is so much more dramatic than the reverse face. I must admit to taking quite a shine to this one.

This one is a little unusual for PMC, even though there have been no shortages of food-themed coins over the last few years. This one ounce gilded silver coin is a fully dimensional hamburger, more specifically, a double cheeseburger in a seeded bun. I’m not sure what else to say about it, really. It’s a really good reproduction of one, despite being only 32 mm across, right down to seeds on the bun, and texture on the edge of the patties. The cheese looks suitably melted.

There’s some extensive decoration on the obverse/base of the coin, with lots of burger restaurant iconography occupying a ringed space around the Samoan coat-of-arms. As I said, an unusual piece, but with food coins seemingly attracting enough attention to warrant a regular flow of them, this one stands out as a bit different.

Precious Metal Collector’s innovative Tri-Metal fine art coin range, now numbering well over 50 examples, adds two new offerings. If you’re new to these coins, they’re formed of a 750 gram zinc core, over which is laid 120 grams of copper, all of which is topped by 2.5oz of fine silver. This gives us a relatively affordable coin compared to a fully silver coin, with no noticeable visual differences.

The first of the two is a work completed between 1805-07 by the French Neoclassical painter, Jacques-Louis David, most famously known for his iconic Napoleon Crossing the Alps painting. The French dictator remains the subject for this coin, reproducing David’s painting, The Coronation of Napoleon, who commissioned it. A colossal six metres by 10 metres in size, it currently resides in the Louvre, not far from Notre Dame Cathedral, where the original event took place. It appears to reproduce the whole work, although I suspect the original has been stretched vertically to fit.

The obverse features a close-up of the egotistical French emperor putting the crown on his own head, taken straight from the painting. Overall, it’s a good choice for the series, especially in historical terms.