The second pair of Mint of Gdansk’s ‘The Witcher’ silver coins debut with scenes from ‘Sword of Destiny’

Continuing to make a pleasant change from the many silver coins featuring the ancient world, the Mint of Gdansk’s ‘The Witcher’ series continues its eight-issue jaunt through the hugely popular world created by Polish author, Andrzej Sapkowski. Each of the eight issues is comprised of a pair of coins, encompassing a regular 2 oz version, and a huge for the genre 1 kilo version with a completely different design.

Sensibly enough, the second annual issue takes the second novel, ‘Sword of Destiny’, for inspiration and depicts scenes from the best selling book. The smaller coin is said to depict a pivotal scene in the saga. “The Queen of Brokilon, Eithne, is holding the goblet and hands it to
Ciri, one of the main figures in the Witcher saga. Next to her is Dryad Braenn.The goblet is filled with the Brokilone Water, containing special
powers. Drinking water from the goblet is to determine the fate of Cir and the others – she may choose to stay in Brokilon or follow her
destiny. In the background we see Geralt The Witcher, who has killed skolopendromorf- a forest creature attacking the local residents.”. A gilded sword makes a nice focal point, as well as a green glass goblet with a crystal inset. The obverse is composed of many elements from the book and includes a small area with the effigy of QEII.

As before, the one-kilo coin is different and features a dragon battle at its main attraction, The obverse has an expansive scene where “we see an ancient bridge built by the trolls, that collapses during the passage. Geralt and Yennefer, holding on to the bridge, are eventually rescued by Jaskier and the others.”. The kilo coin carries on lwith ast years signature feature with a window through the coin, in this case filled with round yellow agate instead of the rectangular green piece in 2019. We only have line drawings of this one at present, but it looks highly promising.

The 2 oz coin has a mintage of 2,000 pieces, with the kilo capped at 200. Both seem well presented, especially the latter variant.The quality of the high-relief strike and the antique finishing will no doubt be first class, given the Mint of Poland is doing to job. Even though prices in general have risen, along with silver itself of course, the Mint of Gdansk is pegging prices to last years rates for an initial period, with a rise coming on 01 December, and another on 01 January, so if you are interested in these, early action will have benefits. Both will ship in early 2021, but are available to order now.

THE WITCHER UNIVERSE

The stories are set on an unnamed Continent, which was settled several thousand years earlier by elves from overseas. When they arrived, the elves encountered gnomes and dwarves. After a period of war between the elves and dwarves, the dwarves retreated into the mountains and the elves settled in the plains and forests. Human colonists arrived about five hundred years before the events in the stories, igniting a series of wars. The humans were victorious, and became dominant; the non-human races, now considered second-class citizens, often live in small ghettos within human settlements. Those not confined to the ghettos live in wilderness regions not yet claimed by humans. Other races on the Continent are halflings and dryads; werewolves and vampires appeared after a magical event, known as the Conjunction of the Spheres.

During the centuries preceding the stories, most of the Continent’s southern regions have been taken over by the Nilfgaard Empire; the north belongs to the fragmented Northern Kingdoms. The Witcher saga takes place in the aftermath of the first major war between the Nilfgaard Empire and the Northern Kingdoms, with a second war beginning in the middle of the series.

The Continent can be divided into four regions. The Northern Kingdoms (where most of the saga takes place) consists of Aedirn, Cidaris, Cintra, Hengfors League, Kaedwen, Kerack, Kovir and Poviss, Lyria and Rivia, Redania, Temeria and Verden and several minor duchies and principalities such as Bremervoord or Ellander. The Nilfgaard Empire occupies most of the area south of the Northern Kingdoms. The eastern part of the Continent, such as the Korath desert, Zerrikania, Hakland and the Fiery Mountains, is mostly unknown. The book series mentions overseas countries with whom the Northern Kingdoms trade, including Zangvebar, Ofir, Hannu and Barsa. (Wikipedia)

BOOKS, GAMES & TELEVISION

The Witcher short stories by the author Andrzej Sapkowski were first published in Polish science fiction and fantasy magazine Fantastyka, beginning in the mid-1980s. The first short story, “Wiedźmin” (“The Witcher”) (1986), was written for a contest held by the magazine and won third place. The series has ‘concluded’ with the publication of the sixth novel in the saga, although that isn’tt including the earlier short story compilations, The Last Wish, and the Sword of Destiny.

The novels became more widely known throughout the rest of the world after the story was used for an officially licenced video-game series by Polish company CD Projekt, the latest of which, The Witcher 3: WIld Hunt, is widely considered to be one of the greatest video games of all time, certainly in its genre. Released in 2015, it has shipped over 20 million copies across multiple formats since then.

There were a couple of Polish TV shows based around the books, but neither were much liked by the author, Andrzej Sapkowski. The big news, however, is that Netflix is pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into a new TV series starring Superman himself, Henry Cavill in the lead role. Due to air in December, it apparently leans more towards the horror aspects of the book in lieu of the fantasy elements. Early buzz is very positive and this could lead to the franchise hitting new heights, with a resurgence in readership of the books as a result.