After a brief hiatus last year (or at least a detour to China), Scottsdale Mint’s popular series of rough-edged Egyptian-themed bullion coins is back for 2019 with a new chunky 5oz addition to the range. Launching in 2016 with King Tut, it was followed in 2017 with Nefertiti and Rameses II issues. There was even a brief detour into gold with a beautiful King Tutankhamun version of the debut release that almost looked like it was taken from a mummy.

Spec-wise this is a continuation of what has gone before. Five-ounces of 0.999 silver with a diameter similar to a one-ounce coin, but super-chunky in thickness (up to 12 mm) with an edge designed to look like the coin had been chiselled from stone. As an avid ancient history fan, I absolutely love this series. The antique finish and rough edge suit the subject perfectly, and as a true bullion coin, these are priced very competitively, especially for the collector.

The latest release moves away from depicting a figure from Ancient Egypt, and instead depicts one of the great works of one of the great Pharaohs. Hatshepsut has left behind some quite extraordinary monuments, attributed to her fairly recently after the failure of her step-son successor, Thutmose III, to erase her from the historical record. Her mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahri had at least six, possibly many more, large Sphinx statues outside it which were removed, broken up and dumped in a nearby quarry by Thutmose III. A restored one weighing seven tons now resides in The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The depiction of the Sphinx looks spot-on, with the mortuary complex in the background. The Met sphinx portrays the female pharaoh Hatshepsut with the body of a lion and a human head wearing a nemes headcloth and royal beard and that is reproduced here. We do miss the more traditional hieroglyphic style of earlier issues, but this is certainly neat enough. Still issued for the African nation of Chad, that countries coat of arms occupies the obverse. The mintage is capped at just 20,000 pieces this time, but the small cardboard box packaging remains. Another top addition to an AgAuNEWS favourite range.