2018 DISNEY PRINCESSES COIN NOTES by New Zealand Mint The New Zealand Mint seemingly has big plans for the coin note format and after the launch of Star Wars and a surprise Star Trek, they’ve returned to their venerable Disney licence for another new series. Having previously appeared on an extensive range of gold and silver coins, Disney Princesses are back for a new range of six coins. The specifications remain the same as the two sci-fi series – an expansive 150 x 70 mm in size and formed from five grams of fine silver. [...]

2018 STAR TREK ORIGINAL SERIES by New Zealand Mint With the earlier launch of a new series of Star Wars silver coin notes, the New Zealand Mint are clearly invested in this new format for 2018. What has surprised us however, is their first foray into Star Trek, usually the preserve of the Perth and Royal Canadian mints, with the debut of a whole new series. Using the relatively new coin note format for their debut with Star Trek is a clever choice as it's about the only type of coin that hasn't been available [...]

2018 STAR WARS A NEW HOPE by New Zealand Mint Popularised by Coin Invest Trust in 2016 with their range of city-based Skyline Dollars, the banknote coin format attracted a few extra members in 2017, most notably with the New Zealand Mint bringing their Disney juggernaut to play. Now it's time for Star Wars to enter the fray with a series that could do much to expand collecting to a wider audience. There are fewer licences more likely to attract attention than Star Wars, so it’s a boost to the fledging format when the NZ [...]

2016-2017 WARRIORS OF HISTORY by the New Zealand Mint The New Zealand Mint debuted a new series in June 2016 called Warriors of History. It featured one of the most fascinating of all warrior classes, the Samurai and now, as the series builds up, it's becoming a fine look at an interesting facet of history, those that fight the wars. To date, the series has wandered through time from the 6th century BCE up to the Middle Ages and has looked across several regions of the world, although as you'd expect, Europe and the [...]

2014-2017 SWISS WILDLIFE by the Helvetic Mint One of the pioneers of ultra high relief (UHR) coin strikes and a company still pushing boundaries today, the Helvetic Mint has been producing this type of coin for many years now and amongst its many releases is its flagship Swiss Wildlife range. A series of one-ounce fine silver coins, Swiss Wildlife looks at some of the incredible fauna that inhabits this beautiful alpine country. Struck in fine 0.999 silver and given an antique finish, each coin is rimless, allowing the design to spread right up to the [...]

2016-2017 KINGS OF THE CONTINENTS by the New Zealand Mint Despite the concentration on their very high profile Disney and Star Wars properties, the New Zealand Mint has always found time to have a few history and nature series on the go at the same time. Moving away from an annual release schedule, the last couple of years has seen sets of coins released at much faster rates. Kings of the Continents is one such series. On the surface an unambitious range of simple coloured coins, there remains a constant demand for nature coins, and [...]

SOS VENICE – END OR BEGINNING? (2016-2017) by the Mint of Poland With a first debut in October 2015, the theme of the series is the north-eastern Italian city of Venice. Highly unusual, Venice is sited on a group of 117 small islands set in the marshy Venetian Lagoon between the mouths of two rivers. It's connected together by numerous bridges spanning the canals that divide the islands. Because of the nature of the ground under Venice, the building foundations are based on closely-spaced timber piles of Alder wood driven into the sand and mud until they [...]

The proliferation of two-ounce antiqued silver coins featuring ancient gods doesn't mean the format is tied to that genre. The New Zealand Mint has taken it and produced a strictly historical range of coins, taking a look at six of the greatest explorers the world has ever known. Two Portuguese, two Brits, a Spaniard and an Italian, mean it's a strictly Eurocentric selection, but there's no denying that all have firmly earned the right to be lauded for tyheir adventures. Definitely a series that could have continued, it's nevertheless good that it's rounded up in a nice tight, collectable set. [...]

One of the best of the ancient mythology series that have swept through modern numismatics in recent years, Scottsdale’s surprise entrant follows a design ethos set out with the mints epic Biblical Series. While that series will run to a huge sixty releases over the next decade, Vikings: Gods, Kings, Warriors will top out at a still impressive 15 coins. At the time of writing, the second batch of three has launched, leaving a further nine coins to appear, likely over the next three years. While there were initial indications that after the launch of the first trio, the coins [...]

Most of the major mints have a silver coin format that could almost be described as a baseline signature. The Perth Mint has its coloured 40.6mm/31.1g format, the Royal Mint its 38.6mm/28.28g sterling silver, and the Mint of Poland, issuer of this series, a 38.6mm/17.5g coloured format. This latest range to wrap up from the Mint of Poland is one such. Called S.O.S. Endangered Animal Species, the range consists of ten coins in total, each depicting one of the myriad number of animals that are in danger of disappearing largely due to the actions of mankind. [...]