Tetris is back on a coin range with a range of seven silver Tetrimino coins, and a clever display frame
The video game coin genre continues apace, and one of the primary issuers of said coins and rounds, the US mega-dealer APMEX, is back with their latest innovative release. The world-famous puzzle game, Tetris, has appeared on coins before, with a very neatly packaged effort from the New Zealand Mint several years ago, and from APMEX themselves, with a range of traditional depictions.
These new coins are anything but traditional, choosing to ignore the cultural and iconic depictions, in favour of almost becoming part of the game. Tetris is famous for its various four-block combo shapes, that are directed to form lines that then disappear. The seven of them are each reproduced as a one-ounce silver coin. There are standard cleanly struck variants, and coloured ones, with each finish in each variant having a mintage of 10,000 pieces. Each one is supplied encapsulated, with prices at the time of writing sub-$35 for the clean, and sub $40 for the coloured.
The star of the show is undoubtedly the framed set of coloured coins. Made of clear acrylic, and with a game background, the seven coins are laid out as if there’s a game in progress, with the last piece on track tofill a line. It’s a clever look, and one we reckon fans will love. The fact that only 250 sets will be produced is a positive, although the $450 price tag less so, putting a lot of heavy lifting on the frame. Still worth it!! Available to order now, with shipping from 27 April. Don’t forget to check out our massive video game coin thematic guide, which these are now part of.
TERIS
Tetris is a tile-matching puzzle video game originally designed and programmed by Soviet Russian game designer Alexey Pajitnov. The first playable version was completed on June 6, 1984, while he was working for the Dorodnitsyn Computing Centre of the Academy of Science of the Soviet Union in Moscow. He derived its name from the Greek numerical prefix tetra- (all the game’s pieces contain four segments) and tennis, Pajitnov’s favourite sport.
Tetris was the first entertainment software to be exported from the Soviet Union to the United States, where it was published by Spectrum HoloByte for the Commodore 64 and IBM PC. The game is a popular use of tetrominoes, the four-element case of polyominoes, which have been used in popular puzzles since at least 1907. (The name for these figures was given by the mathematician Solomon W. Golomb in 1953.)
While versions of Tetris were sold for a range of 1980s home computer platforms as well as arcades, it was the successful handheld version for the Game Boy, launched in 1989, that established the game as one of the most popular video games ever. Electronic Gaming Monthly’s 100th issue had Tetris in first place as “Greatest Game of All Time”. In 2007, it came in second place in IGN’s “100 Greatest Video Games of All Time”. In January 2010, it was announced that the games in the franchise had sold more than 170 million copies–approximately 70 million physical copies, and over 100 million copies for cell phones–making it the best-selling paid-downloaded game of all time. (Source: Wikipedia)
BULLION VERSIONS (10,000 MINTAGE PER DESIGN)
| SPECIFICATION | ||
| DENOMINATION | $2 NZD (Niue) | $2 NZD (Niue) |
| COMPOSITION | 31.1 g of 0.999 silver | 31.1 g of 0.999 silver |
| DIMENSIONS | Variable | Variable |
| FINISH | Brilliant Uncirculated | Brilliant Uncirculated |
| MODIFICATIONS | None | Colour |
| MINTAGE | 10,000 per shape | 10,000 per shape |
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