Sunday 6 May 2018

New TOS silver coin-notes and Captain Kirk figurine from the New Zealand Mint

The latest Star Trek currency collectable is a bit of a curiosity: Not quite a coin, not quite a note, behold, the coin-note! Fresh from the New Zealand Mint, on behalf of the nation of Niue, is this collection of solid silver banknotes. Each 15x7cm note has a face value of one Niue dollar, and the actual face of Queen Elizabeth on one side, and each is made from five grams of silver (making them worth/cost several times the face value).

Each of the main TOS characters have been the subject of the other side of the note, with 50,000 available of each crew member. Captain Kirk began the series back in January, and regular releases since then mean the whole crew are now available.



Each note is issued in a protective sleeve, but the Captain Kirk note also comes with a collector's album, ready to host the rest of the series.




Scotty and Uhura were released in February, with McCoy and Sulu following in March, and Spock and Chekov rounding out the series just a couple of weeks ago.







In addition to the notes, the New Zealand Mint are also just about to issue a solid silver figurine of Captain Kirk - Thankfully they've had the sense not to claim this is an elaborate coin too! The character was sculpted by Alejandro Pereira Ezcurra, is about 10cm tall, and made from 150g of silver. It is a limited edition of just 1000, which is noted on the base too. It's not clear if this is also to be part of a series, but they certainly seem to be leaving that door open, describing it as the "first Star Trek pure silver miniature".








New Zealand Mint is just the latest mint to explore the Star Trek universe, there are also ongoing series of Star Trek coins being issues by Perth Mint and the Royal Canadian Mint.



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