WMF ’23: CIT takes its mastery of clinical precision to new heights with an impeccable spinning coin

The World Money Fair always brings out the best in CIT, the multi award-winning Liechtenstein-based coin producer, and previous years have seen the event used to debut the best of their offerings. This year is no different, and we’re taking a slower, more measured look than we have previously (the video-based post is coming, but we want to make sure that isn’t all we do this time). The primary weapon in CIT’s arsenal has been the outstanding ‘smartminting’ technology developed in partnership with German mint, BH Mayer.

Allowing for both extreme levels of precision, high-relief, and definition, it’s been employed in multiple issues to show off just what is possible with today’s minting technology. This latest issue, amazingly, seems to go further than ever. We’ve often said that most don’t appreciate just how difficult defined high-relief is. A piece of metal is literally squeezed between two dies and has to flow into all the little details, no matter how small. This isn’t like sitting on a cream bun, and cleaning up the mess.

The level of relief on this one-ounce silver coin is simply extraordinary. That it’s also covered, everywhere, with crisp, tightly defined geometric patterning is very impressive indeed. Now, we love a design full of traditional art as much as the next collector, but the crisp, mathematical appearance of this coin, really draws us in. You have to love something as original as this, especially in a market that apes the pop-culture world’s habit of trending. Mint XXI’s space cube is another rare example (more on that tomorrow).

The coin comes in one of CIT’s themed latex ‘floating’ frames that make display an absolute doddle, and which incorporate a Certificate of Authenticity on the enclosed insert. However, we reckon most buyers will try to spin it at least once, especially, as you can see from the images, it seems more than up to the task. It’s great to see coins as different as this continue to surprise us, and at what we suspect will be a relatively affordable price. The mintage of 999 won’t hang around long, we suspect.