The Rolling Stones get their own coins including a coloured silver that wasn’t painted black…

Bands don’t get much bigger than the Rolling Stones, so even in a coin world filled with David Bowie, Elton John and Queen, collectors will sit up and take notice. While those three emanated from the depths of the Royal Mint, The Rolling Stones are being brought to market by the Crown Mint, and they’ve used the flexibility allowed by being an independent to come out with something quite a bit different from the norm.

Stones fans will need no introduction to the ultra-iconic ‘Tongue & Lips’ logo, first appearing on the album ‘Sticky Fingers’ in 1971, so now celebrating its 50th year. It’s hard to believe these guys are still working together and recently became the first band to top album charts in six different centuries decades…

The logo, designed by John Pasche, was done on the suggestion of Mick Jagger and was originally meant to ape the Hindu god, Kali, but it wasn’t long before Jagger himself became inextricably linked with it. The album cover was voted by VH1 as the greatest of all time, so it’s fair to say it has done its job. The coin replicates the logo perfectly, including the colour on the silver versions. There are two of those – a 10 gram and a 1 ounce, with identical designs. An uncoloured gold version with a 12 gram weight rounds out the options.

All are beautifully presented in a themed tin and come with a superb 2 gram, fine-silver Certificate of Authenticity made to look like a concert ticket, complete with a date that just happens to be my birthday. A terrific release, and one that we’re sure fans of the Rolling Stones will love. The smaller silver coin appears to have an unlimited mintage and a $60 USD pricetag, so should have a lot of crossover appeal to non-coin collectors. Fun fact – when the logo debuted, silver was around $1.50 an ounce, with gold at around $40. The good old days…

THE ROLLING STONES

The Rolling Stones are an English rock band formed in London in 1962. Diverging from the popular pop rock of the early-1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the gritty, heavier-driven sound that came to define hard rock. Their first stable line-up was bandleader Brian Jones (guitar, harmonica, keyboards), Mick Jagger (lead vocals, harmonica), Keith Richards (guitar, vocals), Bill Wyman (bass guitar), and Charlie Watts (drums). The band’s primary songwriters, Jagger and Richards, assumed leadership after Andrew Loog Oldham became the group’s manager in 1963. Jones left the band shortly before his death in 1969, having been replaced by Mick Taylor, who in turn left in 1974 to be replaced by Ronnie Wood. Since Wyman’s departure in 1993, Darryl Jones has served as bassist.

Rooted in blues and early rock and roll, the Rolling Stones started out playing covers and were at the forefront of the British Invasion in 1964, also being identified with the youthful and rebellious counterculture of the 1960s. They then found greater success with their own material as “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”, “Get Off of My Cloud” and “Paint It Black” became No. 1 hits in the UK, North America, Australia and Europe. Aftermath (1966) – their first entirely original album – is considered the most important of their formative records. In 1967, they had the double-sided hit “Ruby Tuesday”/”Let’s Spend the Night Together” and then experimented with psychedelic rock on Their Satanic Majesties Request.

They went back to their roots with such hits as “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” (1968) and “Honky Tonk Woman” (1969), and albums such as Beggars Banquet (1968), featuring “Sympathy for the Devil”, and Let It Bleed (1969), featuring “You Can’t Always Get What You Want” and “Gimme Shelter”. Let It Bleed was the first of five straight No. 1 albums in the UK. In 1969, they were first introduced on stage as ‘The Greatest Rock and Roll Band in the World’.

Sticky Fingers (1971), which yielded “Brown Sugar”, was the first of eight consecutive No. 1 studio albums in the US for the Rolling Stones. Exile on Main St. (1972), featuring “Tumbling Dice”, and Goats Head Soup (1973), yielding the hit ballad “Angie”, were also best sellers. They released successful albums until the early 1980s, including their two largest sellers: Some Girls (1978), featuring the disco-tinged “Miss You”; and Tattoo You (1981), featuring the hit rocker “Start Me Up”. They then kept a low profile until 1989 when they released Steel Wheels, featuring “Mixed Emotions”, which was followed by Voodoo Lounge (1994), a worldwide number one album that yielded the popular “Love Is Strong”. Both albums were promoted by large stadium and arena tours as the Stones continue to be a huge concert attraction; by 2007 they had four of the top five highest-grossing concert tours of all time. Their latest album, Blue & Lonesome (2016), became their twelfth UK number-one album. Their recent No Filter Tour ran for two years concluding in August 2019. In total, they have released 30 studio albums, 23 live albums and numerous compilations.

The Rolling Stones’ estimated record sales of 240 million makes them one of the best-selling music artists of all time. The band has won three Grammy Awards and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989 and the UK Music Hall of Fame in 2004. In 2008, the Rolling Stones were listed 10th on the Billboard Hot 100 All-Time Top Artists chart, and in 2019 Billboard magazine ranked them second in their list of the “Greatest Artists of All Time” based on US chart success. They are ranked 4th on Rolling Stone’s list of the Greatest Artists of All Time. (Wikipedia)