The Royal Mint returns to the Star Wars universe with a second four-issue series of proof coins, and all new bullion bars

Last July, the Royal Mint surprised us with a new Star Wars coin collection, a franchise which had been associated with the New Zealand Mint for almost a decade. Consisting of four designs, each depicting a pair of characters, they were available in a choice of three gold, and four silver variants, with the coloured silver 50p coin the one that most will remember.

For 2024, the mint is releasing four new designs, this time centred around the vessels, rather than the characters. The first of them is the Millennium Falcon, and it’s depicted in flight by artist Ffion Gwillim. Franchise coins like these are usually very restrictive for artists, as the limitations placed on designs are often quite onerous, hence the simplicity. It’s an okay design, but nothing you haven’t seen before. The circular feature at the top is lenticular, with the Rebel Alliance ‘Starbird’ set within it.

Unfortunately, the press release we got for this issue is missing a lot of information, and we only got the coloured 50p images, and no specifications or mintages. You can check out the release from last year, as the specs are almost certainly the same, but the round coin images for this issue are currently missing. We’ll update this when we get them. Future releases will be the TIE-Fighter, the X-Wing and the Death Star II, all coming in 2024.

Joining this series are a range of new bullion bars. The Royal Mint has been releasing a lot of these of late, some, like the Una & the Lion offering, quite beautiful, but we were still surprised to see Star Wars appear on them. There will be two designs released this year, one for the Rebels, and one for the Empire. They will be done in what the mint calls a ‘comic-style’.

The first of them is the Rebels, and depicts Han, Leia, and Luke in front of a ‘Hyperspace’ pattern. It’s a decent design, different to anything else we’ve seen, which we like, and reasonably recognisable. Again, we haven’t received any images of the back of the bar, so we don’t know if it’s a standard design, or one tweaked for the franchise.

No surprises on the formats on offer, with a one-ounce gold, and one and ten ounce silver. We don’t have specs for these either, but it’s highly likely they will be the same as the Una & the Lion bars. While the coins will be available from 9am UK-time today, no such time was indicated on these, so keep an eye on the mint’s bullion page.

GALLERY

DENOMINATION COMPOSITION DIAMETER FINISH MINTAGE
Details to be confirmed