It’s been a manic year at Scottsdale Mint given what has been a wide and varied program of bullion coin releases. The Fiji Mermaid, Cayman Islands Marlin, Congo Silverback, Samoan Seahorse, the Chinese Dragon for Cameroon, and the Ghanaian Leopard have all brought some cool design to the limited run bullion coin market – and that’s not even counting the new Royal Arms of England, and Caribbean EC8 programmes. Add in a move to China from Egypt for the chunky range, and you can’t help but be impressed by the choice on offer.

Despite the year heading to a close, there’s more to come with the debut of a new Asian-inspired series called Four Guardians. Distributed by Korea-based dealer Hyperion Gold, this is a small mintage series with a striking visual style. The first is Blue Dragon, also called the Azure Dragon of the East and will be followed by a bird, a tiger and a turtle. The sparse look works well, and the choice of a smaller font than usual for the inscriptions in the border, adds to the appeal.

Issued for the Republic of Chad in Africa, the obverse carries that nations coat of arms at the bottom, along with a larger Bitcoin logo above that. Despite that, this is denominated in Francs CFA, a currency used by several nations in the region. Three versions are available, all with the same design. Bullion coins are one-ounce in weight and offered in either 9999 gold or 999 silver. Mintages are super tight at just 100 for the former and 15,000 for the latter. In addition, there’s a proof silver coin with some subtle colour on the obverse face. Only 500 of these will be produced.

Whatever version you buy, it comes in Certi-Lock packaging. Like a wide credit card, the coin is sealed in its tamper-proof centre. The back of the card has a serial number, mintage number and an encrypted barcode. This can be read using only special smartphone app, so on the whole, far more secure than the typical bullion coin, especially with a synthetic DNA embedded within it as well. We’ve yet to get full details of the coins, but they are already up for sale at Hyperion Gold. We’ll update this article as we get more information.