The New Zealand Mint, have pulled out all the stops with possibly the biggest license of them all, Star Wars. Having released entertainment tie-ins for years, like Doctor Who, Disney and Thunderbirds the mint has made this type of coin its speciality with the only real competition being the Perth and Royal Canadian Mints.

Star Wars debuted in cinemas back in 1977, but with a new movie just a few weeks away, interest hasn’t been this high for years. With George Lucas now out of the picture, it’s hoped that a fresh set of ideas will reinvigorate the series after the disappointing second trilogy. Disney have detailed a hugely ambitious schedule of new movies over the next few years that will see interest in Star Wars skyrocket.

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. Featuring uber-baddie Darth Vader, the clean-struck coin was available in one and quarter ounce gold variants, and as a one-ounce silver. That has again turned out to be the case for the second release, Han Solo. The Vader coin also became available as a Deathstar-sized one-kilo coin and we’d imagine at some point in the future, this one will be too. With mintages set at 10,000 for the silver and the gold at 1,000 for the ¼oz and 500 for the 1oz, we’d imagine this superb design will be a huge hit. Kudos to the mint for an exceptional job, the image working superbly in the metal format.

Packaging mirrors the first release and prices are in US$, $85.00, $620.00, and $2,500 respectively. Available to order later today, you should see these for sale in quite a few places (there’s an advertiser deal on our homepage). The coins will ship from 07 December.

On a side-note, we’ve boosted the contrast on the image below-left to get a better look at the coin as the original was a little flat because of the flashgun used. The watermark is recognition of the fact it isn’t completely original, but the other image below-right is official.