Now passing the half-way stage of an eight-coin 2018 program, Scottsdale Mint have doubled on the usual solo release by launching the Grenada and Montserrat coins in one hit. Previous issues that have been for other countries in the East Caribbean Central Bank zone include Antigua & Barbuda, Saint Kitts & Nevis, and Dominica. Still to come are Anguilla, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent & the Grenadines.

The Grenadan coin takes nature for its inspiration and depicts a diver swimming above a reef and towards a shipwreck. One of our favourites to date, it does a great job encapsulating the region and is a good-looking design in its own right. The proof versions employ selective colour highlighting – the reef enjoying a blaze of different shades.

The coin for Montserrat takes a different approach and carries a design based around the flag, rather than the physical island itself. It’s lacks the soul of the island – this is after all, a place famed for its active volcano – but is attractive for its type. The beauty of the EC8 series has always been the variety of themes that make up the set. The proof variants also employ colour (we’ll have images up later) and in this case its the Union Flag at top left, and the national shield at bottom right, that get the highlighting.

The obverse is common to the series and can be seen in our Bullion Profile to the series, to which we’ll add these two tomorrow. The same formats are on offer and will likely remain set for the life of the series. The bullion coin comes as a 1oz 0.999 silver (25,000 mintage) and a 1oz 0.9999 gold (2,500), with the boxed and certified proof coins ahving a 2,500 mintage in silver, with just 500 in gold.. The bullion variants ship in capsules on customized Scottsdale Mint branded skin boards of five, although dealers will sell them individually. The Gold “Nature Island” BU coins will ship in Scottsdale Mint’s Certi-Lock® packaging. Available any time now, prices will remain the same as the previous issues.