Picking up the Star Trek license last year, the Perth Mint jumped straight in with a ten-coin series of Captain:Vessel sets released throughout the year. Comprised of five pairs of coloured silver coins, one for each of the live-action Star Trek series that have been produced over the franchise history, they employed some extravagent packaging to appeal to fans. A solitary Spock release to commemorate the pasing of actor Leonard Nimoy rounded out a busy 2015.

This year has been much quieter, unless you count the huge 11-coin release run from the Royal Canadian Mint in May. Just a gilded silver bar has appeared from Perth this year until today, very surprising in Treks 50th anniversary year. This new coloured coin is, in our view obviously, easily the best to debut to date. Moving away from the photo images used on the previous coins, this coin depicts an artistic rendering of Captain Kirk and Commander Spock as they appeared in the original 1960’s series. A really excellent piece, with a background of planets, stars, and starships from different races, it’s full of colour and detail.

As well as being sold on its own (mintage 5,000), it’s also available in a two-coin set. The second coin is available only in this pairing, and is thus limited to just 1,500 pieces compared to the combined 6,500 of the Kirk:Spock one. It depicts a fine image of the original Enterprise on a background representing warp speed travel. One negative we have is the choice of packaging. The LED-lit plastic display boxes are decent enough, but very bulky and have been used since the first sets debuted over a year ago. Collectors buying all of these coins will now have six of the double coin Transporter sets, and/or twelve of the singles. The former in particular are not attractive enough, or compact enough to display easily. Time for a change in our view.

The big, and unexpected news is the launch of a new Tuvalu-issued one-ounce silver bullion coin using the Jennifer McKenna design from the Starship Enterprise coin. This one look like it’ll be a huge hit. A combination of a hot license, cool design, and mintage limited to just 50,000 means this will be a big seller. Don’t expect premiums to be as low as the Kangaroo on this one, or the finish to match a proof coin, but it will sell heavily and quickly we’re sure. It will be offered encapsulated.

The coloured coins are available to order today, as is the bullion coin. A great month for bullion collectors and Trekkers alike.