For reasons I can’t even begin to fathom, the The South Pacific Island state of Niue has decided to strike a set of 40 coins that honor the Star Wars saga.
From Topless Robot:
The South Pacific Island state of Niue is ready to produce a set of legal tender coins featuring not only the Queen of England, but characters from George Lucas’ Star Wars films. The entire collection will total 40 coins in all and be produced by the New Zealand mint. Each coin has a face value of NZ$2 (£1), but don’t expect to see them floating around in circulation – the silver content in each piece of currency makes them worth far more.
The series will be sold in sets of four coins, each containing 1 oz. of silver, and will sell for NZ$469 (£235). Clearly, this aimed at collectors. If that price is to steep (is there really such a thing when it comes to Star Wars collectibles?) there will also be more affordable coins – albeit ones struck in a silver-plated base metal.
They’re very expensive, but since they’re actual silver, they’re not going to depreciate in value. They’re an interesting collectible, to be sure, and I’m sure this will yield the nation plenty of money since they’re being sold at such a premium price. Which makes me wonder… Why doesn’t the use mint some collectible legal tender with Star Wars characters on it? Or Marvel characters? Or DC? If they can mint this stuff cheap, add collectors value to it, and then sell it at a premium, couldn’t we make up some of these budget shortfalls so we don’t have to steal crutches from crippled orphans?
According to the New Zealand Mint website: Each coin in the Star Wars set is struck from 1oz of pure silver. No more than 7,500 of each coin will be issued by the New Zealand Mint. The coins are legal tender of Niue Island. Meaning they will be fairly rare.
You can see the full set of coins by hitting this website.