The New Zealand Mints biggest licence at the moment is undoubtedly Star Wars. More than any other mint, the NZM has released entertainment tie-ins for years, like Doctor Who, Disney and Thunderbirds, only the Perth Mint with Star Trek, and the Royal Canadian Mint with Superman and Looney Tunes are any competition.

Star Wars, although it debuted in cinemas back in 1977, is back big time with the latest movie, The Force Awakens, smashing box-office records around the world. With George Lucas having sold the rights to Disney, there are numerous movies planned with the next one to be a standalone movie called Rogue One, due out at the years end and telling the story of the theft of the Death Star plans that kicked off the first movie all those years ago. Disney have a busy schedule of new films due out over the next few years that will keep interest in Star Wars very high. It seems the NZM have signed up at just the perfect time, no doubt helped by already doing a good job with the Disney range.

The first NZ Mint coin to be released was also the first in what we think will be the big hit of the range, Classic Star Wars. Showcasing Darth Vader, the clean-struck coin was available in one and quarter ounce gold variants, and as a one-ounce silver. That was repeated for the second release, Han Solo. The Vader coin was also available, although not at launch, as a Deathstar-sized one-kilo coin and while Han Solo has yet to make the leap, we’d imagine the possibility remains, especially with such an iconic design. Mintages for Yoda remain at 10,000 for the silver, with the gold at 1,000 for the ¼oz and 500 for the 1oz.

A pretty iconic design again, this one should be popular with fans, of which there are millions. A nice touch we’ve not seen before with this series is the use of a slightly cropped image for the ¼oz coin. This keeps the image of Yoda looking bigger than it would otherwise do if the reverse design perfectly replicated the one-ounce versions. Packaging is unchanged from the previous pair of coins and prices stay at US, $85.00, $620.00, and $2,500 respectively. Available to order later today, the coins will ship from 24 April.