Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is 80 years old and Niue celebrates with gold and silver coins

The Disney coin juggernaut continues on with a celebration of one of the most important movies in the whole of Disney history – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The first animated full-length feature film from this iconic studio, the story of Snow White was adapted from one of the tales in the extensive library of the Brothers Grimm. As one of Disney’s best loved movies, its appearance on a coin was simply a matter of time.

One of the New Zealand Mints Classic Disney series, this flagship range eschews all the usual modifications, generally preferring a simple cleanly struck look, but this time around the one-ounce silver has a bit of colour on it. Going with an older vision instead of a contemporary one, it’s a great look at these beloved characters. Snow White and the dwarfs are picked out in colour and every other background element is left untouched. We’ve admired this series for its purity of focus and can honestly say that in this instance the colour is not detrimental in any way.

The gold coin benefits from no colour at all. Again, this is something we like, as colouring never seems to sit as well on gold as it does on silver. Harking back to a couple of coins last year, the quarter-ounce gold coin has a custom design, offering a tighter focus on the character than the full silver artwork. A good decision as there’s simply too much packed into the 40mm diameter silver coin to faithfully reproduce in the 22 mm gold. Choosing to take Snow White and just two of the dwarfs, the design packs out the reverse face to good effect.

The gold coin sticks with the mints tried and tested wooden box for presentation. Holding a certificate of authenticity and packed in a coloured themed shipper, we’ve never had reason to complain about them and have no reason to now. The silver has gone a different route with a custom red circular box. An image of Snow White adorns the lid and it will still come with a cert and inside a similar shipper. The silver has a mintage of 10,000 pieces, ten times the mintage of the gold, and will sell for $85.00 USD. The gold will land at a much more expensive $620.00. Both should be up for sale later today.

2017 SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS SILVER COIN

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a 1937 American animated musical fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and originally released by RKO Radio Pictures. Based on the German fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, it is the first full-length cel animated feature film and the earliest Disney animated feature film. The story was adapted by storyboard artists Dorothy Ann Blank, Richard Creedon, Merrill De Maris, Otto Englander, Earl Hurd, Dick Rickard, Ted Sears and Webb Smith. David Hand was the supervising director, while William Cottrell, Wilfred Jackson, Larry Morey, Perce Pearce, and Ben Sharpsteen directed the film’s individual sequences.

Snow White premiered at the Carthay Circle Theatre on December 21, 1937, followed by a nationwide release on February 4, 1938. It was a critical and commercial success, and with international earnings of $8 million during its initial release briefly assumed the record of highest-grossing sound film at the time. The popularity of the film has led to it being re-released theatrically many times, until its home video release in the 1990s. Adjusted for inflation, it is one of the top ten performers at the North American box office.

At the 11th Academy Awards, Walt Disney was awarded an honorary Oscar, and the film was nominated for Best Musical Score the year before. In 1989, the United States Library of Congress deemed the film “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant” and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry and is ranked in the American Film Institute’s list of the 100 greatest American films, who also named the film as the greatest American animated film of all time in 2008. Disney’s take on the fairy tale has had a significant cultural impact, resulting in popular theme park attractions, a video game, and a Broadway musical. (Source: Wikipedia)

2017 SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS GOLD COIN

MINTS DESCRIPTION: This coin celebrates the 80th anniversary of the Disney classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It features an early illustration of key characters from the film. Snow White and the dwarfs have been highlighted in full colour.

Presented in a themed outer box which contains the coin nestled inside a stunning red circular commemorative box.

SPECIFICATION

NAME 2017 SNOW WHITE SILVER 2017 SNOW WHITE GOLD
DENOMINATION $2 New Zealand $2 New Zealand
COMPOSITION 0.999 silver 0.9999 gold
WEIGHT 31.1 grams 7.78 grams
DIAMETER 40.00 mm 22.00 mm
FINISH Proof Proof
MODIFICATIONS Colouring None
MINTAGE 10,000 1,000
BOX / COA Yes / Yes Yes / Yes
NEW ZEALAND MINT