Scottsdale Mint’s hewn-edged Terracotta Warrior bullion coin series debuts a belated 2021 release

Better late than never, as the old saying goes, Scottsdale Mint has debuted the fourth in its superb Terracotta Army range of five-ounce silver bullion coins. An offshoot of an earlier ‘Ancient Egyptian’ series, also still running, ‘Terracotta Army’ first appeared in 2018, and unlike its more flexible forebear, has stuck rigidly to that single format.

Fortunately, that format is perfect for the concept in use here. We’ve seen a few coins in the past with unbound edges, those that are uneven, and unconstrained, like those on the Monnaie de Paris’ gorgeous ‘From Clovis to Republic’ series, but here we have a ‘designed’ rough edge, called ‘ruptured’ by Scottsdale, but we call them ‘chiselled’ or ‘hewn’. That’s my stonemasonry background coming out, probably. It looks terrific, because these coins are thick, explained by five-ounces of silver only hitting a 46 mm diameter, a worthy tradeoff in this case.

Whereas the Egyptian series has a whole culture to draw from, this series is laser-focused on a single archaeological site – the Terracotta Army in the tomb of the Emperor, Qin Shi Huang, who ruled China for just ten years, between 220-210 BCE. There’s lots more history in our article covering the last release, so we won’t repeat it here, but suffice to say, this quite incredible site, with it’s 8,000 life-sized warriors, along with horses and chariots, is a great source of inspiration for a coin series. Much of it still remains to be explored.

Antique-finished, and issued for Fiji, this latest issue features a close-up depiction of two warriors, perfectly encapsulating the unique faces of each one. I personally still prefer the Egyptian series for its wider focus, and with the coin’s physical appearance suiting the stone nature of that civilisations relics a little better, but that’s to take nothing away from these Chinese themed coins at all. Coming in a neat little hessian-style bag with a Certificate of Authenticity, these are no-brainer bullion coins for us, with low premiums and high quality, along with a truly different appearance. The mintage is at 5,000 this time (they vary quite a bit!), making them all the more attractive. Available now, and highly recommended.