Underwater World has finished, but MDM takes the concept to the jungle with Tiger, the first ‘Colours of Wildlife’

Launching in 2018 and running for three years and seven issues, MDM’s pretty ‘Underwater World’ series of three ounce silver coins employed an ultra high relief design, combined with a raised border. This formed a pool that was filled with a translucent blue enamel. This allowed parts of the design to poke through the surface of it, without obscuring those parts of the strike that were covered by it. It worked really well, and a couple of those coins (the turtle and octopus) are amongst our favourite issues of the last few years.

MDM have taken the core concept for their latest series, ‘Colours of Wildlife’. We’re going to assume from the title that the enamel colour will vary for each issue, but for this first one, the green application tries to hid Panthera Tigris, the Tiger. It’s a pretty cool design. The tiger head is well done, and the plethora of undergrowth around it, both above and below the enamel, really gives it apopropriate depth. It doesn’t work quite as well as Underwater World, but that’s more down to the nature of the environment (water is a defined surface, while undergrowth isn’t), than anything else.

Inscriptions are kept to a coin title and the date of issue, but there’s also the neat little ‘privy’ stamp with the series title in it, much like the one on the predecessor series. The obverse is a pretty one, carrying a similar border for the inscriptions as the one on the reverse. There’s a central area that has the Barbados coat of arms on it, but the zone between those two areas has a superb flowing depiction of animals in a habitat scene. Some of those, although likely not all, may well be subjects for future issues, including a snake, and several birds.

The antique finish works just as well as the prior aquatic series, and the serial number of the coin is inscribed on the smooth edge. Packaging looks decent, if a little generic, and there’s a Certificate of Authenticity enclosed. The mintage is capped at a fairly healthy 999 pieces and it’s available to pre-order right now. A fine debut, we look forward to seeing where the series goes in the future.