Something that many never envisioned would ever happen, an abundant release schedule of new Star Wars movies kicks off  in December with the debut of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Now owned by Disney, who also boast the rest of the Lucasfilm archives in their repertoire (Indiana Jones etc.), as well as the phenomenally successful Marvel Comics Universe, all along with their own product, the future is looking brilliant for Star Wars fans.

The New Zealand Mint have had the exclusive rights for Disney coins since last year, and it seemed to be a natural fit for them to slide into the Star Wars licence a few months ago with the first of the Classic Star Wars coins, this one featuring one of the movie worlds all-time great villains, Darth Vader. The mint has been teasing news on coins for the new J. J. Abrams directed movie for a while now and have finally lifted the embargo on the information.

A staple format for the mint, the three announced designs are all 1 oz coloured silver coins and all are shipped in the excellent acrylic frames that they’ve used for some time now, but newly slimmed down to be around a third less heavy without compromising the look or quality. We’re fans of these frames here, much nicer than a standard box.

The three coins depict major characters from the movie and will be released one per month from October 5th (Kylo Ren), through November 2nd (Captain Phasma), and finishing on December 1st with Rey. Which will prove to be the most popular will depend on the reception the characters will get when people have seen the movie, but the designs look coherent and consistent and we’d imagine that most will want all three. Each is limited to 10,000 pieces, no doubt a fairly tight mintage given the expected popularity of the film. All will sell for $85.00 from the NZ Mint, although over dealers will have them on the day as well.

The movie is due to launch worldwide just before the Christmas holiday and most details of the plot are being kept under wraps. Old stars from the original trilogy, Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher), and Han Solo (Harrison Ford) will appear in it and give it some sense of continuity and gravitas, something the second, and generally substandard trilogy, lacked.

MINTS DESCRIPTION

KYLO REN: A dark warrior strong with the Force, Kylo Ren commands First Order missions with a temper as fiery as his unconventional lightsaber.

CAPTAIN PHASMA: Clad in distinctive metallic armour, Captain Phasma commands the First Order’s legions of troopers.

REY: Rey is a resilient survivor, a scavenger toughened by a lifetime of dealing with the cutthroats of the harsh desert world of Jakku.

OBVERSE: This features the Ian Rank-Broadley effigy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

PACKAGING: The Star Wars: The Force Awakens 1 oz Silver Coins each come presented in a high-quality, new slimline Perspex coin case (appr. 30% lighter than our previous Perspex case) and Star Wars-themed outer coin packaging. The packaging makes these an ideal gift for any Star Wars fan. The Certificates of Authenticity sit within each coin case.

ADVERTISEMENTS

iconicon
icon
icon
icon

SPECIFICATION

DENOMINATION COMPOSITION WEIGHT DIAMETER FINISH MINTAGE BOX / COA
$2 NIUE 0.999 SILVER 31.1 g 40.0 mm PROOF 10,000 EACH YES / YES