Scottsdale have been issuing some great limited run bullion coins over the last few years, such as the Cayman Islands Marlin and Hokusai, The Great Wave and with this new announcement there’s confirmation that Scottsdale will continue to do so for some time. Starting with this new release, a programme of precious metal coin issues linked to the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) countries will begin. Eight island nations are included in the programme – Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, Saint Kitts & Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent & the Grenadines.

Some of these nations have never had a gold or silver bullion coin issued for them, but Scottsdale will change that with a unique design for each state being released throughout the year. It’s a great concept and as someone who worked on Anguilla for over a year, one of great personal interest. In addition to the bullion coins, there will also be proof variants with tighter mintages and a higher quality finish, although priced much higher, of course.

The first issue is for Antigua & Barbuda, a beautiful place (although it redefines torture to try to sleep when the tree frogs are having a noisy night…) and one with a strong colonial history. Piracy and rum-running was common and Scottsdale has chosen the latter as the subject of this issue. Depicting a sailing vessel offshore with some barrels of rum on the beach, it’s a decent debut and quite atmospheric. The obverse will likely be a common one for the series as each coin is legal tender in all eight places.

The bullion coin is available as a 1oz 0.999 silver (25,000 mintage) or 1oz 0.9999 gold (2,500) variant, and in addition to those there are a pair of proof commemorative versions with similar weights, but far smaller mintages. The proof coins have some selective colouring on the reverse face, something we’d prefer wasn’t there, to be honest. The proof coins will come boxed with a certificate of authenticity.

This is a very cool idea for a bullion series – something not done anywhere else at the moment and we hope it’s a success for them. We’re especially looking forward to the Anguilla release which is shown in the video further down, but there seems to be plenty of variety in the designs, so most will find at least one they like. Available to order now.