Lord of the Rings is about to hit the small screen, with a billion-dollar production for Amazon Studios, so after a quiet few years since the last of Peter Jackson’s ‘The Hobbit’ movies hit cinemas, the saga is back in the forefront again. The New Zealand Mint has an expansive range of coins, most falling inside their ‘Classic’ format, eschewing colour and adornment for a traditional, clean strike, and this latest launch is another of them.

Called Rivendell, after an Elvish place in the Lord of the Rings saga, it depicts the House of Elrond, a magical sanctuary. There are three formats here, including the latest three-ounce silver that the mint has embraced of late. This takes a wider view of the structures than the one-ounce silver, or quarter-ounce gold, which take a cropped look at a single building. The mint has taken this approach with quite a few releases in their many licenced ranges, and we wholeheartedly approve. Rather than try to cram in the design from a big coin into a little one, it instead goes for a similar level of detail, while depicting less. Check out the Star Wars Classic coins for other examples.

As always, quality packaging is in evidence for all variants, and the antique finish on the silver coins is an increasingly popular choice.

Jurassic Park seems to be a popular subject in this genre, and The Coin Company have a mixed-style selection, mainly shaped dinosaurs, but this time it’s road-sign, scored by a T.Rex. It’s coloured on the reverse side, and quite an unusual design. The packaging seems to be quite impressive, being a large version of those solid acrylic block frames, used in smaller form by the Royal Mint, and others.

To be frank, the popular culture franchise market is a convoluted mess. Certain franchises are held by different mints in different countries, and out of the blue, a coin will debut for a licence we thought held by another. Just two short months ago, Glines & Rhodes released a coin featuring the superb, smash-hit animated series, Rick & Morty. It was called ‘Pickle Rick’ (fans will know what this is, while everyone else will be left scratching their head, even after an explanation!).

Imagine our surprise then, when the New Zealand Mint just offered up their own Rick & Morty release. While it’s only a simple coloured one-ounce silver coin, the design perfectly encapsulates the madness of the show. It goes without saying that it’s one for the fans, but as there are legions of those, we’re going to assume the 3,000 mintage will sell quickly. The packaging is as excellent as always with the NZ Mint, neat, and fully themed.

A series that has now reached eleven issues, Faces of the Empire is a collection of shaped coins depicting helmets from the dark side of the Star Wars Universe, We’re assuming that series is soon to come to a conclusion, so the New Zealand Mint has today launched the first of the sequels, this time called Faces of the First Order.

It’s the same as before, just a one-ounce coloured silver coin, shaped, and depicting a helmet. For this debut issue, the mint has gone with the sequel movie trilogy’s big bad, Kylo Ren. The coin is very well presented, and has a fairly large mintage at 10,000 pieces. Available now.

A French icon, Goscinny and Uderzo’s brilliant Asterix the Gaul graphic novels have enthralled for over sixty years, and through 39 books (the last six by others), so a range of coins put out by the Monnaie de Paris seems a natural fit. The books are absolutely beloved around the world, and the cast of eccentric characters are both distinctive, and well known.

There’s been a copious range of issues to date, and 2022 sees another 20 or so coins join in. Too many to cover here (we’ll do a profile soon, we’re still waiting for better images from the mint), the range encompasses gold and silver, and from 0.5 grams, to five ounces. Like the Harry Potter coin below, the shaped coin is the stand-out design for us, and depicts the dog star of the franchise, Dogmatix (Idefix, in the original French).

A quite superb depiction, faithful to the original artwork, it’s full of nice touches, including an obverse filled with a pattern of bones.

We produced a Thematic Guide to Harry Potter coins not so long ago, based on the assumption that it wouldn’t take too long, as there were not that many of them. We were wrong, and it took ages, and was spread out over three pages. One of the big issuers of Potter coins was, surprisingly given its British origins, the French national mint, the Monnaie de Paris, who launched a comprehensive range in 2021.

Back in 2022 with another 5 coins, (we’ll add them to the guide shortly), the one that will probably generate the most interest is this shaped wizard’s hat, available in gold and silver. This is a direct sequel to the 2021 Hedwig the Owl coin, also shaped. Coins like this are popular, and very well done, not straying into gimmick-territory with inserts, or colour.

Keep an eye on the guide for the rest of the 2022 range, including a minigold, a 22 gram silver, and a 1/4 oz gold.

Rapidly closing in on its half-way point, Crown Mint’s Marvel Mini Heroes adds ‘The Falcon’ to its roster. There are 24 coins in the series, and they tend to drop every month or so. This is the tenth so far.

Each coin comes in a custom capsule in a themed blister pack, and there’s an auto shipping subscription where the Crown Mint will ship you the latest coin every month ($99.95 each) and with the third coin (Black Panther) they gave away a collection box., but you can also buy one separately for $29.95. It holds 12 pieces.

More Chibi this month, now a regular fixture on the numismatic calendar, and this is another in the Friends subseries. If you like the show, this will have appeal. I hate it, a lot…

Check out our epic Chibi profile for the full look at the almost 90 issues to date.

Yes, it’s true, a second Friends Chibi this month, keeping up the practice of releasing these in pairs – this is the third such double issue. Again, one for the fans.