Art-architectural coins have been a big collector favourite over the last few years, so perhaps it’s only fitting that we get one more in before the end of 2015, and from a series that has had only a single entrant to date. Famous Opera Crystal is tightly focused on the worlds great opera houses and debuted last year with a popular coin featuring the Paris Opera Garnier. Produced by Berlin-based coin designers, JVP Investment coins, issuer of such extensive series as World Heritage, Russian Emperors, and Vintage Mini Posters, the coin is in many respects of a standard specification for the genre.

Weighing it at 2oz of fine silver, 50mm in diameter, and with an antique finish, the coin itself holds no surprises, so like its peers, its success will rise or fall on the quality and integrity of the design, and on the choice of subject. The subject is a popular one, the Metropolitan Opera House at the Lincoln Center in New York being one of the world’s premiere events and that’s a double-edged sword. The building is a clean looking modern design, lacking the intricacies and history so ingrained in the fabric of the older European institutions, but the coin designer has taken the best elements, including the unusual ceiling, to make something worthy of a coin release in such a richly competitive field. The superb looking insert really breathes life into the look of the coin faces, much more so than the first coin, and the overall look can genuinely be considered a success.

Available to ship any time now, this high-relief design comes with a Certificate of Authenticity, but unfortunately without any other packaging outside of a capsule. We reckon that if you liked the first coin, you’ll likely want to pick up one of these as well.

MINTS DESCRIPTION

The Metropolitan Opera, commonly referred to as “the Met”, is a company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. The company is operated by the non-profit Metropolitan Opera Association, with Peter Gelb as general manager. The music director is James Levine. It was founded in 1880 as an alternative to the previously established Academy of Music opera house.

The Metropolitan Opera is the largest classical music organization in North America. It presents about 27 different operas each year in a season which lasts from late September through May. The operas are presented in a rotating repertory schedule with up to seven performances of four different works staged each week. Performances are given in the evening Monday through Saturday with a matinée on Saturday. Several operas are presented in new productions each season. Sometimes these are borrowed from or shared with other opera houses. The rest of the year’s operas are given in revivals of productions from previous seasons. The 2012-13 season comprised 209 performances of 28 operas.

The operas in the Met’s repertoire consist of a wide range of works, from 18th-century Baroque and 19th-century Bel canto to the Minimalism of the late 20th century. These operas are presented in staged productions that range in style from those with elaborate traditional decors to others that feature modern conceptual designs.

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SPECIFICATION