The artist of the series, Laimutė Varkalaitė, is already a big favourite at AgAuNEWS for her awesome work on the World of Cryptids range, so it’s great to see the mint dive deeper into her imaginative work. The circus is a place of wonder, or if, like many, a fear of clowns makes it something darker. Pastel Circus seems to concentrate on the former with just mild hints of the latter in tow.

The main character embodied in the series is a very striking clown figure, and depicts its “symbolic transformation into a bird ” on all the coins in the series. The art is quirky, beautifully coloured and quite unique. We love them. The obverse, with their stage curtains, is common to the series. These two are called ‘Flying’ and ‘Rising’, and we have yet to enjoy ‘Balancing’ (November), and ‘Becoming’ (February 2024).

The Minotaur legend, rooted in Greek mythology, tells the tale of a fearsome creature born from the union of a human and a bull. Imprisoned within the labyrinth of King Minos, the Minotaur demanded the sacrifice of Athenian youths. Theseus, a brave hero, ventured into the maze and slayed the monstrous beast, liberating the land from its terror and exemplifying the triumph of courage over adversity.

Designed by Miroslav Hric, a favourite here, it depicts the Minotaur prowling the maze, while the hero Theseus, protecting a woman sent into the maze to satiate the beast, stalks it. Struck in high-relief, the maze spans into the far distance, with all the action about to take place in the foreground. The obverse is a great design, also, with a compass rose dividing it into four sections, each with a scene depicting a mythical tale, including this Minotaur.

It’s all antique-finished, with just some blood-red colouring on the floor of the maze on the reverse face. Each of the four coins in this series, Kraken, Sirens, and Harpies, has such colouration, although a different one in each case. The former pair of those is already available, with the Harpies coin yet to come.

Now, this is a particularly beautiful coin, depicting the Greek god Poseidon. It eschews the usual setting and goes with a heavily artistic portrait, struck to a high relief, and quite exquisitely coloured. The trident has been a little compromised to fit into the coin’s extremities, but that’s a minor quibble. The placement of the selective gilding is well-chosen, and the way the flowing elements’ transference from beard to sea is expertly done.

What remains of the background field is replete with marine life, intertwined with Poseidon. It’s all quite superb. The obverse is a standard affair, with the Public Seal of Niue in the centre, but without further customisation. A credit to the artist. The first coin in this series depicted Bacchus.

The enigmatic and beautiful Venus De Milo, sculpted in antiquity, is one of the most widely recognised and admired works of art in history. It’s also no stranger to the numismatic world, but we’ve never seen it depicted in such a unique way. Rather than the finished work, we see it in progress, the block of marble giving way to the beauty chiselled into it by the unknown artist.

It isn’t a realistic portrayal of the genesis of the statue, but it’s a brilliant one. A really outstanding coins. The obverse continues the theme with the Public Seal of Niue seemingly appearing from the rock, freshly created. Another fine touch in what is an exceptional take on a time-honoured subject.

Sekhmet, the lion-headed goddess, is one of the more visually striking of the Ancient Egyptian deities, which is saying something when you look at the competition. The daughter of Ra, she was the goddess of medicine, and of war. Basically, she could kill you, patch you up, and then knowing ancient mythology, kill you again…

She acted as the vengeance of Ra, and was said to breathe fire, hence her depiction by the mint as Lady Flame. Yet another beautiful coin, it leans heavily into Ancient Egyptian iconography, as well as their love of gold, with the employment of extensive gilding. The cat, with a necklace carrying the Eye of Ra, is a nice counterbalance to all that gold. The obverse, is a standard one, identical to other coins here, but that takes little away from the finished coin.

One of the Lithuanian Mint’s longer running series, Fairy Tales, returns with a classic of the genre, Cinderella. Like many of this innovative mint’s coins, they show us the story in a way a little off-centre. Here, the titular star of the story is seen in panic, overlaid onto a classic timepiece, all representing the running down in time before she is destined to return to her prior existence.

She is shown half an object of societal beauty, and half in the guise of the tortured sibling she was. In the background of each half, placed within the ironwork frame of the clock, are small depictions of each persona. In the rich half, on her slipper and in her hair, are inset Swarovski crystals. It’s a neat take on the story. The obverse is mostly standard, but with a themed custom border, incorporating pumpkins.