It was early last year that the New Zealand Mint brought its flagship Disney licence to the bullion coin market when it launched its Steamboat Willie range. Depicting Mickey Mouse in his 1928 movie, the coin seemed pretty popular and was followed up later in 2017 with a Mickey Mouse lunar bullion coin. Third time out it’s the turn of a hugely appropriate character to adorn a bullion coin – Scrooge McDuck.

Created by Carl Backs way back in 1947, Scrooge McDuck is described as an elderly Scottish Pekin duck and is a super-wealthy business magnate, super-tight with his money, and Donald Ducks uncle. Often pictured diving into vaults filled with gold coins, the character is a perfect choice. His image on the coin, holding a huge bag of money, is typical of Scrooge, so there’s no confusing who this is. As the coin is issued for Niue, the obverse carries the effigy of QEII by Ian Rank Broadley, so no surprises there.

Two formats are on offer, both a troy ounce in weight. The silver variant is struck in 0.999 fineness silver and the gold in 0.9999. There are no design changes between the two versions outside of the obvious denomination and composition inscriptions. The silver coin is sold in themed monster boxes containing 250 coins (10 tubes of 25 coins), although picking up smaller quantities shouldn’t be a problem. The gold is sold individually encapsulated. Both coins are available now and should be easy to pick up worldwide.