Same Bat Time. Same Bat Channel. It’s 1966 again and the New Zealand Mint is launching a new Batman-inspired series featuring the evolution of the Batmobile through his history. What better place to start than one of the most iconic vehicles in any genre, the Adam West Batmobile from the ultra-camp and quite mad television series.

The usual simple format from the mint, unfortunately, but they’ve done a good job with the choice. Antique-finished with a coloured Batmobile and TV show logo, it certainly captures some of the shows magic. The Batman head above seems not related, so we’re going out on a limb and guessing that’s the coin series logo. The background field looks like the flaming exhaust from the car. We’d have dumped the Batman head and just had the car and show logo as it seems a bit over-busy. Perhaps a rectangular format would have suited better.

A 1oz 0.999 silver coin, packaged in the superb acrylic block frames this mint pioneered, and the mintage is 2,000 pieces. Available from today, it’s billed as the first in a series, but whether it goes the comic book route, or preferably, the movie route, remains to be seen. The licencing around this stuff is complicated.

LINKS: BATMAN 66 COIN SERIES