TAROT MAJOR ARCANA (2021-) by the New Zealand Mint For at least 600 years, a pack of cards called The Tarot, have been used to play games across parts of Europe, starting in Italy. However, starting in 18th century France, the cards captured the attention of occultists, and from there, the Tarot deck took on two distinct forms. Today, most interest in the cards is centred around their occult use in divining the future. The deck in this case is made up of 78 cards. Of those, 56 are divided up into four suits, each composed [...]

MANDALA ART (2015-2024) by Art Mint Launched in 2015, Art Mint's Mandala Art series has continued with a single annual release ever since, growing in sophistication and ambition as time has passed. The series has taken the concept of the mandala, a geometric pattern of squares and/or triangles in a concentric pattern, and applied it to a selection of world cultures, expanding it out from the Sanskrit origins it's most closely associated with. In truth, the mandala style is an ancient one with use throughout history and with a geographically diverse distribution, from Mesoamerica to the [...]

COCA-COLA BOTTLE CAPS (2018-) by Crown Mint One of the most iconic brands in history, Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a simple carbonated soft drink invented in the late 19th century. Named after kola nuts and coca leaves, a couple of the original ingredients, Coca-Cola was bought from its inventor John Pemberton, by Asa Griggs Candler, who, through some impressive marketing, turned it into a world dominating product. In 2015, Coca-Cola was said to be the world’s third-most valuable brand, behind Apple and Google, and in 2013 their products were served up in over 200 countries [...]

BRITISH MONARCHS (2022-2023) by The Royal Mint This is one of those releases we always look forward to. The Royal Mint has produced this multi-year programme of coins tapping into Britain’s rich history, in the same vein as recent numismatic hits like the Queen’s Beasts, the Tudor Beasts, and the Great Engravers series. They almost always exhibit sky-high standards of design and execution, and this five-year, 21-coin series, looks to be no exception. Called the ‘British Monarchs Collection’, it will span the Royal Houses of Tudor, Stuart, Hanover, and finally the current mob, Saxe-Coburg, Gotha & Windsor. [...]

FAMOUS HISTORICAL BUSTS (2022) by Precious Metal Collectors We were extremely impressed when Precious Metal Collectors, most widely known for their silver over copper 'Bi-Metal Max' issues, debuted a new two-ounce silver coin in the shape of Abraham Lincoln. Eschewing any trickery, this was a solid silver coin, issued for the Republic of Chad, that was simply antique-finished. The star of the show was the incredible job that had been done, bringing a two-dimensional representation of a person into a three-dimensional piece of silver. We suspect the coin was released to test market reaction, and [...]

2020+ CHIBI COLLECTION by the New Zealand Mint A phenomenon that has travelled far from its Japanese homeland, Chibi (ちび or チビ) is slang for 'short' and is applied to various pop culture genres today. Chief amongst those are the small, chubby caricatures with their tiny bodies and over-sized heads – also called super-deformed (SD). A popular style in anime and manga, and also with the Funko figures that are seemingly everywhere these days, we’re actually surprised the concept has taken this long to hit the numismatic world. If anyone was going to do [...]

2013-2023 TREASURES OF STANISLAW AUGUST by Narodowy Bank Issued by the National Bank Of Poland (NBP), also known as the Narodowy Bank, Treasures of Stanislaw August is a rare gem along the lines of the Monnaie de Paris' superlative From Clovis to Republic series. Whereas that series took a modern designer, Christian Lacroix, and reinterpreted the styles of history for a modern, themed look, this series is firmly rooted in a historical source. The last king of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was Stanislaw August Poniatowski, and around 1790 he instructed a pair of talented medallists, Jan Filip [...]

MOMENTS OF LOVE (2019-2026) by Mint XXI It isn't often we see a subject like sex featured in its own coin series. Hinted at perhaps, but not front and centre (no pun intended...). If you're going to do it respectfully, then showcase the classic text on the subject, the Indian work, Kama Sutra. This is an ancient text, tracing its roots back well over 2,000 years, and sets out the ways to garner maximum pleasure from the act of procreation. Mint XXI is no stranger to nudity on its coins, offering some superb examples [...]

TRAPPED (2019-2023) by CIT Coin Invest We have a particular fondness here for coin designs that do things quite differently from whatever the trend of the time is. In 2019, the ancient mythology theme was the darling of the coin world, and while some stunning designs were released in the genre, there was a basic underlying style to most of them. In the midst of that came CIT, with 'Trapped', with a concept and execution utterly unique. The series tells the claustrophobic tale of someone confined behind a fabric sheet, but they're not alone. From [...]

PLANETS & GODS (2019-) by Mint XXI What happens when you combine two popular coin themes into one? You get something like Mint XXI's 'Planets & Gods' series of three ounce silver coins. Mixing together the popular ancient mythology and the astronomy genres, they've produced an attractive and clever range of coins linking together the planets of our Solar System, with the ancient gods that gave them their names. Launching in 2019 with Mercury, each coin features a representation of the ancient god, usually in the style of a statue of the period, overlaid on [...]