Late last year, Mint XXI debuted a really inventive new take on Vincent Van Gogh’s seminal masterpiece, ‘Starry Night’. A popular choice to grace the face of a modern coin, ‘Starry Night’ is usually reproduced in full, or in part, but Mint XXI’s take was altogether more interesting. With the targetted use of high-relief, the work was reinterpreted in the style of stained=glass, an art form best associated with the huge medieval cathedrals that dot European towns and cities to this day.

Sticking with Vincent Van Gogh for the second issue, we now have ‘Sunflowers’, another iconic and much loved work. The treatment is equally effective, and it’s clear that Van Gogh’s unique style does indeed lend itself well to the transformation, and we wouldn’t be surprised to see the mint return to his work for a third outing next year. The ‘stained=glassification’ wouldn’t work for all artistic styles. The common obverse from the first coin returns unchanged.

There’s a nice latex-skin floating frame that makes displaying this expansive 70 mm diameter coin easy, inside a themed slipcase, and the mintage of this two-ounce silver coin is capped at 500 pieces. Available to order now, it’s a fine follow-up to the launch coin.