Santa, the Rubber Duck, and now the Gingerbread Man have been brought into the precious metal world by PAMP via its unusual PEZ homage. Taking on the appearance of the original iconic hard candy, the little silver pills each weigh five grams and fit perfectly into the hundreds of different PEZ dispensers that have been released over many decades.

The silver set, the third to date, follow the same formula. A custom dispenser is included, in this case featuring that seasonal favourite, the Gingerbread Man, as well as six silver ‘candies’. So all in, just a touch shy of a troy ounce of 0.999 silver in each set. The only real difference with the silver ‘pills’ themselves is a small privy mark that matches the set. Both Santa and the Rubber Duck had their own marks, and that’s also the case here. You can also buy the silver component seperately, in packs of six, which has a different design on them, one akin to the original candy.

The mintage this time is slightly higher at 4,000 pieces, which is hardly surprising given how quickly these sell out. Packaging is bang on the mark and the whole thing hits its target audience perfectly. Available to order now, we’d expect another pretty quick sell-out given prior performance.

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.