Cashing in on Pop Culture: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at How New Zealand Mint Makes Collectible Coins

New Zealand Mint has been trading in New Zealand for more than 50 years. The company has evolved significantly over this time. We now design and produce collectibles coins, medallions, and miniatures in pure silver and gold — the majority under license from some of the world’s biggest brands — as well as trading bullion. In fact, we were the first company to make collectible coins under license for Disney, and we are celebrating our 10th year!

Development of our e-commerce website, nzmint.com, means we now have a growing base of international customers ordering direct. We ship for free to these fans around the globe from our premises in Auckland. Of course, most of our collectibles are still available via our distributors worldwide.

This is a question that gets asked a lot! Our collectible coins are all legal tender, meaning they are real money and can be spent. Introducing licensed collectible coins brought disruption and innovation to a long-standing industry of numismatics. However, our coins are brilliant uncirculated coins i.e., they are legal tender, but they are not in everyday use as currency. The legal tender value of the coin varies. For example, a $99 coin might have a $2 legal tender value — so it really wouldn’t make any sense to spend it! The $2 value is simply there to confirm it as a legal tender coin, with this status comes the government-backed guarantee of the limited mintage of the collectible and the purity of the silver or gold.

To be classified as legal tender, a coin must feature an effigy (monarch’s head) or a coat of arms on the obverse of the coin. We have a long-standing relationship with the Pacific island of Niue to use their effigy/coat of arms, so most of our coins can only be spent in Niue anyway!

Where to start! We are currently making collectibles under license for eleven different brands. In fact, it is our 10th year of minting collectible coins. As you can imagine there have been a lot of collections to come and go — as all our coins are limited edition, so once they are gone, they are gone! We try to offer fan-favorite characters or themes on our coins, or link to TV shows or movies — and as you have mentioned there is usually an anniversary to be celebrated.

My best answer to this question is just to go and look at our website, nzmint.com — you’ll see the wealth of collectibles on offer! Fans are drawn to these collectible coins as not only are they limited edition and made from pure silver or gold, but they are made to proof quality — the absolute highest quality coin a Mint can produce. Each coin is artfully designed, and this can include detailed engraving, coloring, and other unique finishes, plus shaping — coins don’t have to be round! Plus, each one comes in specially designed packaging. We provide an individual number for every coin, so you know which one you have in the limited mintage, along with a Certificate of Authenticity confirming it as legal tender.

When we work with our licensors, they provide us with style guides that we can draw from. Our designers use these guides for inspiration, determining which image will look best on a coin — obviously, a coin only has a small canvas, which does make it difficult. There is an art to making the coin interesting and impactful, yet still making sure you can see what is on it!

Once the design is approved then the ‘dies’ are created. One has the chosen image for the coin and the other the effigy. A ‘blank’ is created, in our case a piece of pure silver or gold that will become the coin, and this is pressed between the two dies — this is the minting of the coin. The coin is then completed with polishing, additional finishes, or color printing and encapsulated to ensure that their quality is pristine, as finger oils and long-term exposure to the air can be detrimental to the coin’s quality.

As mentioned before all our coins are made from pure silver or gold; there is a tangible value to that. Plus, they are all limited edition — some with mintages as low as only 100 worldwide! And of course, they are officially licensed by some of the most loved brands in the world. Combined with artful designs and bespoke packaging perfect for display, they are a collector’s dream.

There have been so many over the years that I’m not sure I can pick a favorite. If I were to choose one from this year it would be the Wonka Bar that we created for Warner Brothers’ 100th-anniversary celebration. I loved the movie as a child and the coin was a whopping 5 ounces of silver that looked just like a bar, with the silver peeled back to reveal the ‘chocolate.’ It was placed in a bespoke chocolate box, and we only made 500 of them. They sold out very quickly!

We do have a ‘Coming Soon’ section on our website, nzmint.com, where we feature the upcoming releases for the next 2 months and tease future releases. For the future, we are looking to produce the first-ever trading coins. It’s a new concept for coin collecting, which encourages the trading of coins; we hope fans are really going to embrace the idea! And we are excited to release our first collectibles in the sport category before the end of the year — UFC fans, watch out!

I have already mentioned the quality of our coins, but we go the extra mile by providing specially designed packaging to complement them, often with a window so you can display the coin without ever taking it out of the box, keeping it in pristine condition! And I guess we didn’t touch on price. Our collectibles do require a certain level of investment as you are buying precious metal. A 1-ounce silver coin usually sells for around $99. That said, there are plenty of collectibles out there that command a premium price and yet you don’t get the benefit of pure silver! We have many happy customers. In fact, many are more impressed once they have it in hand — photos really don’t do them justice. You can feel the weight, see the amazing detail, and the glint of the silver or gold. They really are pretty special!