The New Zealand Mint’s impressive silver miniature range expands with a second Darth Vader statue

It’s been a while since we saw a new miniature from the New Zealand Mint, but here we are with a second Darth Vader statue. The mint has quite a wide variety of these, spread mainly across its DC Comics, Disney, Star Trek, and Star Wars licences, all sculpted by the clearly very talented, Alejandro Pereira Ezcurra. We can honestly say that we’ve never been disappointed by one of these, and while there’s a lot of stylistic difference between Donald Duck and Batman, for example, they’ve all been perfectly realised regardless.

Each of the miniatures is cast in silver, sometimes in 0.925 sterling silver, but usually of 0.999 fineness. Weights vary, but they tend to be, like this new release, around the 150 gram (approx 5 oz) mark, and they’re invariably antique-finished. The new release we’re looking at here is the fifth to draw from the Star Wars Universe, and also the first time the mint has gone back to a character for a second bite.

Everybody knows who Darth Vader is, so we’ll skip the introductions. Along with that comes the knowledge that pretty much everybody knows what Vader looks like as well, so it’s fortunate that Ezcurra has done another bang-up job with the sculpt. This one depicts Vader using ‘The Force’, likely to throttle a minion. It’s beautifully done, of course, but very similar to the first Darth Vader release. We’d have liked to see something a bit different, or even another character from the vast franchise, but at least it gives those who missed out on the first release another chance to snap up a legend.

Well presented, it comes with a base, on the underside of which is engraved the serial number. Just 1,000 units will be produced, and they sell for $720.00 USD each.