You click for a candy and you get a lump of silver. I’d have a smiley face as well!! PEZ is back.

A surprise hit on release back in 2019, MTB-PAMP launched an unusual new bullion product that aped the legendary candy treat, PEZ. The sweets originated in Europe and are comprised of two elements. Firstly, there’s the food part, which is a hard candy with a range of flavours. Nothing out of the ordinary there, but the candy is dispensed from a custom toy, and they come in a vast range of collectible designs.

In retrospect, it’s the perfect way to mix un-denominated bullion with the collectible market, and the popularity of each release – this is the fifth -has made that abundantly clear. Each release changes in two ways. The most notable is the dispenser, which sets the theme for each release. The next and more subtle change, is a privy mark which carries that theme.

For this fifth release they’ve gone with a classic smiley emoji complete with sunglasses. As laid out above, that means the requisite privy also sits on the silver pills. The same six pills, each 5 grams in weight, make up the set, all packaged in a neat plastic box. As the pills are the same size as the originals, they can be put inside the dispenser and dispensed.

The set is nicely packaged overall and has a mintage of 4,000 units. We’d predict this will join the others in selling out and we don’t doubt for a second that there will be further releases. Something very different, it should be applauded for that. Our guide to the series is almost finished, so keep an eye out for that this week. Available from today.

THE PEZ STORY

Pez (stylised as PEZ) is the brand name of an Austrian candy and associated manual candy dispensers. The candy is a pressed, dry, straight-edged, curved-corner block 15 mm (​5⁄8 inch) long, 8 mm (​5⁄16 inch) wide, and 5 mm (​3⁄16 inch) high, with Pez dispensers holding 12 candy pieces.

1927 – PEZ is born when Austrian Eduard Haas II introduces tins of peppermint candy. known as ‘Pffefferminz’ in German, hence PEZ.

1949 – After years of selling them in small tins, the inventor Oscar Uxa patents a small mechanical dispenser and shows it at the Vienna Trade Fair that same year. It held 12 tablets, just as the latest dispensers do.

1952 – PEZ sets up operations in the USA in New York City and gets their first dispenser patent

1956 – A dispenser styled like a space gun is released, followed a year later by a three-dimensional character head, and then a year after that, their first licenced dispenser – Popeye.

1960’s – The range of flavours and character styles increases dramatically, with unusual flavours like Chlorophyll and Flowers.

1973 – The company finally starts manufacturing the candy in the US after decades of production in Europe.

1978 – New interchangeable rubber head character dispensers are introduced.

1984 – Little tabs are added to the dispenser base to allow it to stand up. These feet are used by collectors to date and value vintage dispensers.

1991 – PEZ becomes part of popular culture with the first collector convention in Ohio. Just two years later, PEZ hits the cover of People magazine and is the star of a Christies auction in New York.

2000 – The first furry ‘plush’ dispenser launches.

2005 – Star Wars comes to PEZ, followed by American Chopper family, the Teutals, in 2006 and Mickey Mouse in 2007, the last of those celebrating the 80th anniversary of PEZ.

Today, PEZ remains super popular with over 70 million dispensers sold annually, along with 5 billion candies across 90 countries. A new range of designs are released in a catalogue every year.