COLOURED MINTED SILVER BARS (2024) by Scottsdale Mint We've increased our coverage of bullion bars here, mainly due to the recent popularity of Germania Mint's coloured two-ounce cast bars, and we've already written a Bullion Profile to Scottsdale Mint's flag bars. Unlike Germania Mint's coloured offerings, these bars are minted rather than cast, are all an ounce in weight, and an identical size (although the orientation can change from portrait to landscape). This guide will cover everything outside the flag bars, which have their own profile, and at the time of publishing, this amounts to [...]

FLAG SILVER BARS (2024) by Scottsdale Mint We don't really cover many bullion bars here, mainly because we have our hands full with the denominated coins, but the recent popularity of Germania Mint's coloured two-ounce cast bars has meant we're a little more open to the occasional dabble. Here we are. Scottsdale Mint is a big name in the bullion market, and their latest series seems to be one that would have appeal to the coin collector, perhaps. These bars are minted, not cast, but like the Germania range, have a coloured front face. [...]

WORLD'S WILDLIFE (2019) by Emporium Hamburg There's certainly been an uptick in the number of wildlife-themed bullion series issued for African nations over the last decade. Everything from prehistoric life to all the ecosystems of the world today. Emporium Hamburg have been at the forefront of that with their hugely popular Somali Elephant (African Ounce) bullion range that's well into double figure releases now, and more recent offerings like Prehistoric Life, itself getting a second series. In 2019, they added World's Wildlife to the mix, a series issued for the Democratic Republic of Congo. The [...]

TOKELAU SEALIFE (2014-) by APMEX/Highland Mint A twelve-coin bullion series that issues a single design every year, Tokelau Sealife debuted in 2014 to a mixed reception. Buyers seemed to like the design, but there were soon comments regarding the quality of the prooflike coin circulating around the forums. This resulted in a change to a satin finish, seen as a way of minimising the look of flaws. Fortunately, the series quality picked up rapidly, keeping the satin finish until 2020. Fortunately, the series, which looks at sealife around the Oceanic island nation Tokelau, has [...]

GERMANIC RUNES (2023-) by Germania Mint They say that simple ideas are almost always the most effective, and this bullion offering from Germania Mint is a perfect example. Take a lump of silver, stamp it with a character, and if done right, you have something packed with symbolism, and just a little different. What Germania Mint has done is exactly that, and the characters they’ve chosen for the task fit into their themed historical world perfectly – Germanic runes. Germanic runes are an ancient system of writing that predates the Latin alphabet. These angular, enigmatic [...]

BRITISH MYTHS & LEGENDS (2021-) by The Royal Mint Displaying an obvious talent for putting 'Britishness' on a coin, The Royal Mint has a quite extensive range of bullion offerings in production, quite the change after decades of just Britannia and Sovereign. Heraldry, history, and iconography make up the bulk of them, but the stories of Britain's past are also a fertile breeding ground for ideas. Launching in 2021, Myths & Legends will eventually tell four stories from the nation's extensive literary past. It will do so over twelve coins, with each story getting a [...]

BLACK FLAG (2019-) by the Perth Mint Who doesn't love a pirate coin? We've seen quite a few in the bullion world, most notably the New Zealand Mint's 'Pirates of the Caribbean' series, based on the Disney film franchise, and 'Pirate Queens' from the Royal Australian Mint. Both of those are now defunct, so it falls to the Perth Mint's 'Black Flag' to keep the skull and crossbones flying. Launched in 2019, it debuted with one-ounce silver and gold variants, as well as a five-ounce silver coin, all with a brilliant uncirculated finish. In 2022, [...]

LIMITED BULLION COIN SERIES by the Royal Australian Mint It wasn't that long ago that the Royal Australian Mint was nowhere near being the first mint you thought of in the bullion world, but the proliferation of low mintage designs over the last decade has tempted them to jump in. As a result, the last few years have seen a big uptick in activity, and it shows little sign of slowing down soon. What we've produced here is a summarised round-up of the various series that the RAM has put out in recent years, much [...]

GERMANIA WORLD BULLION COIN RANGES by Germania Mint While we have full bullion profiles of both Germania, and Allegories, the whole numismatic world that Germania Mint is building is quite a bit wider than that. There are a few currently smaller ranges that are even more interesting, bringing the current total up to five. This summary of them is not meant to be an exhaustive look at them, but rather a collation that you may find useful as a collector. We've always admired what the Germania Mint has built here. These aren't coins per se, as [...]

ICONS OF INSPIRATION (2021-) by APMEX While it's true that the majority of bullion coins are themed around national emblems, nature, or popular culture, there remains plenty of room for more unique offerings in a market that has grown in variety over the last decade. One of our favourites is 'Icons of Inspiration', a look at some of the great minds that have influenced human advancement in the past. Launched by APMEX in 2021, each release in the series chooses an individual (or pair in the case of the Wright brothers) and depicts them, usually [...]