A quirky addition to the silver bullion market last year was the Santa PEZ dispenser. The iconic candy, a perennial favourite for over 90 years, was reproduced in silver form. A working dispenser held six pills of 0.999 silver, each of five grams in weight, so just shy of a troy ounce. Each had the PEZ logo on the obverse, and the reverse face was adorned with the inscribed composition and a little Santa head image.

As that issue sold out in a day, it was a no-brainer to guess it would be back this year and here we are. Saint Nicholas has given way to a rubber duck. It’s a pretty cool design, which has been extended to some heavily themed packaging. If you like the first PEZ issue, you’ll like this one for sure. Given how quickly that sold out, we’d expect similar this time around.

As before, just 3,000 sets will be produced and they should be available to order now. Something truly different in the marketplace, and that’s something to be welcomed. That PAMP/MTB have done such a good job with the concept is a nice bonus.

THE PEZ STORY

Pez (stylised as PEZ) is the brand name of an Austrian candy and associated manual candy dispensers. The candy is a pressed, dry, straight-edged, curved-corner block 15 mm (​5⁄8 inch) long, 8 mm (​5⁄16 inch) wide, and 5 mm (​3⁄16 inch) high, with Pez dispensers holding 12 candy pieces.

1927 – PEZ is born when Austrian Eduard Haas II introduces tins of peppermint candy. known as ‘Pffefferminz’ in German, hence PEZ.

1949 – After years of selling them in small tins, the inventor Oscar Uxa patents a small mechanical dispenser and shows it at the Vienna Trade Fair that same year. It held 12 tablets, just as the latest dispensers do.

1952 – PEZ sets up operations in the USA in New York City and gets their first dispenser patent

1956 – A dispenser styled like a space gun is released, followed a year later by a three-dimensional character head, and then a year after that, their first licenced dispenser – Popeye.

1960’s – The range of flavours and character styles increases dramatically, with unusual flavours like Chlorophyll and Flowers.

1973 – The company finally starts manufacturing the candy in the US after decades of production in Europe.

1978 – New interchangeable rubber head character dispensers are introduced.

1984 – Little tabs are added to the dispenser base to allow it to stand up. These feet are used by collectors to date and value vintage dispensers.

1991 – PEZ becomes part of popular culture with the first collector convention in Ohio. Just two years later, PEZ hits the cover of People magazine and is the star of a Christies auction in New York.

2000 – The first furry ‘plush’ dispenser launches.

2005 – Star Wars comes to PEZ, followed by American Chopper family, the Teutals, in 2006 and Mickey Mouse in 2007, the last of those celebrating the 80th anniversary of PEZ.

Today, PEZ remains super popular with over 70 million dispensers sold annually, along with 5 billion candies across 90 countries. A new range of designs are released in a catalogue every year.