There seems to be an increasing interest in cast and minted bars from the major mints, as well as from independent producers, and the Royal Mint has shown a particular penchant for the minted variety. We’ve had British iconography, of course, but also James Bond, and even Star Wars, so it’s less of a surprise that out of nowhere, we get a new series based around Norse Gods.

The first release is the head of the Norse pantheon, Odin, and the design by Dan Thorne is very impressive. The All-Father is seated on his throne, his spear Gungnir in hand, with his wolves, Geri and Freki, at his feet. On his shoulders sit his two ravens, Huginn and Muninn. The throne, is ornately decorated with runic patterns, and above and below it is the word Odin in Runic (I think), and English. A fine looking piece of art. The bag has a Norse dragon on it.

The range of offerings is quite interesting, numbering five in total. The Royal Mint loves a ten-ounce chunk of precious metal, so it’s of little surprise that it appears here. What’s very surprising is there are two silver bars in this weight, one with the standard finish, and for the first time at the mint, one in an antique finish. The antique one is very rare in comparison, with just 100 being struck. The same is true with the popular one-ounce weight, where the balance of bullion to antiqued is 120-to-1.

The fifth and final variant is a 20 gram gold bar, a good weight choice given gold’s stratospheric rise in price. This variant, as well as the small silver bars, will come in sealed blisterpacks, and in a nicely themed box, which you can see below. The box is designed to hold this bar, and future releases in the Norse Collection, which is a nice touch.

All told, a cool debut, with a good choice of formats, and some particularly tempting mintages on some of them. All are available to order now.