Beloved children’s story, The Snowman, is back on a Royal Mint proof coin range for the eighth successive year

The Royal Mint has engendered huge success with its range of heptagonal fifty pence coins showcasing British literary talent, from Winnie-the-Pooh and Peter Rabbit, to the subject of their latest release, the Raymond Briggs penned classic, The Snowman. Indeed, this has been one of the longest-lived, and most popular of them all, enough to keep the series in circulation for this eighth annual issue since 2018, having sold over 750,000 coins across 75 countries, apparently.

Each issue takes a piece of original Robin Shaw artwork for its inspiration, and here we see the two main characters bonding over decorating a Christmas Tree. It’s a charming enough piece, and sure to appeal to the countless fans of the original work. The obverse is not themed, and carries the usual effigy of King Charles III, surrounded by the issue inscriptions.

As a 50 pence coin, the silver variant has that 8 gram weight (in sterling silver), and has some suitable colouring. The 22kt gold coin is uncoloured (I like that, as colour rarely looks good on gold, IMO), and weighs in at half an ounce. The big bonus this year is the offering of a one-kilo coloured silver coin, with a total mintage of just 3 pieces, only one of which will be sold as an individual coin like the others. However, even though the price of a kilo of silver has skyrocketed to a phenomenal £1,260 at the time of writing, the mint is asking for a staggering £15,110 for the coin. For what it is, that seems very excessive. Still, if you want it, please click our banner below first, as I need a new office chair… 😉

The base-metal pairing is also offered again, in uncoloured form with an unlimited mintage, for £15, and in coloured form for £25, but that one has a mintage cap of 12,500 in this form, and 16,000 with the 3,500 advent calendars included. The calendar contains 23 chocolate coins, along with the coloured coin, and one very lucky person will open that window and find, not a base-metal coin, but the gold one! Merry Christmas indeed! All will be available to buy from 9am UK time today, and from 10 November, you can strike your own 50p at the Royal Mint’s Visitor Centre in Llantrisant, Wales. Check out their site for details.