Solo, the latest stand-alone Star Wars movie, appears on the latest Niue silver coin

The new stand-alone Star Wars origin story, Solo, is being released next month and the New Zealand Mint are maintaining their practice of launching coins to commemorative it.  Like the coins issued for Rogue One and The Force Awakens, these are different to the Classic Star Wars range because of their use of colour.

Solo is a pretty standard issue. A 40mm diameter, one-ounce silver coin with a coloured image on the reverse face is common enough these days and will no doubt maximise the appeal to the movie market, perhaps at the expensive of the traditional coin collector. That’s fine however, as anything that widens the appeal of coin collecting can only be good for us all. The design is decent enough, doing what it has to do to encapsulate the movie in the space available.

The obverse  is the standard Niue one of the Queens effigy surrounded by inscriptions detailing the denomination and issuing details. The presentation also follows what has gone before and is of a good quality. The mintage is set at 10,000 pieces and a serialised certificate of authenticity is included. Available later today for a recommended $85.00 USD, it will be available form several of our sponsors as well, who also tend to stock many of the extensiive range of Star Wars coins released over the last few years.

2018 STAR WARS SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY

SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY

As Darth Vader is considered one of the greatest movie villains of all time, Han Solo is considered one of its greatest heroes. A Corellian smuggler inadvertantly caught up in the fight between the rebels and the Galactic Empire, his story of redemption is one of the threads running through the original trilogy that made those movies so loved by fans.

Solo was one of the characters brought back for the new Star Wars sequel trilogy, and one that will help anchor the movies to the existing universe. As well as the main trilogy, the release of the movie telling the early story of this beloved character will do much to fill out the gaps in the past of the smuggler Han Solo. The film is directed by Ron Howard and is produced by Lucasfilm from a screenplay by Jonathan and Lawrence Kasdan, and will be distributed by the new owner of the franchise, Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.

A stand-alone installment set prior to the events of Rogue One and the original 1977 film, it explores the adventures of a young Han Solo and Chewbacca, including meeting Lando Calrissian. The film stars Alden Ehrenreich as Solo, alongside Woody Harrelson, Emilia Clarke, Donald Glover, Thandie Newton, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Joonas Suotamo, and Paul Bettany. The film is scheduled to premiere on May 15, 2018 at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, and be released in the United States on May 25, 2018, in RealD 3D and IMAX 3D.

SPECIFICATION

DENOMINATION $2 New Zealand
COMPOSITION 0.999 silver
WEIGHT 31.1 grams
DIAMETER 40.00 mm
FINISH Proof
MODIFICATIONS Colour
MINTAGE 10,000
BOX / COA Yes / Yes