Undoubted kings of the popular culture coin market, the New Zealand Mint has for years offered silver coins for a whole swath of franchises. Currently issuing multiple ranges of coins and coin notes for such impressive licences as Disney, Star Wars and DC Comics, the recent addition of Star Trek to the selection was surprising given coins for this seminal science-fiction series have previously been the reserve of the Perth Mint and the Royal Canadian Mint.

Previously limited to a single range of silver coin notes, for which we have a coin series profile, the next Star Trek product is a surprising change for this Auckland-based mint. Not a coin or a note, they’ve gone for miniature sculpts as the next thing – obviously 2018 being an experimental year for them. Produced in pure silver, these carry no denomination and are exactly what they look like.

First out of the starbase is a 100 mm tall statue of Captain James Tiberius Kirk. One of sci-fi’s best loved and most iconic characters, the statue takes a classic pose of Kirk holding a phaser that will be well known to fans of Star Trek. There looks to be plenty of detail and it looks anatomically excellent, although not a perfect facial likeness. A very nice piece of work by Spanish sculptor Alejandro Pereira Ezcurra, it bodes well for future releases.

The 150 gram, antique-finished silver figure sits on a 100 mm wide base on which is marked the purity and serial number, so pretty much a surrogate certificate of authenticity. Outer packaging is of a nice quality and colourfully themed. Because of the weight and limited production run, this isn’t a cheap one at $550.00 USD, but we’re guessing this will find plenty of buyers regardless. We’ve seen an image of what is potyentially the second sculpt and it also looks good, so this may well shape up to be a decent collectible series, although we hope the mint is sensible with its release schedule. The NZ Mint has released some of its coin series at quite a rate of speed and that isn’t ideal for something in this price bracket. Available now, site sponsors Coin Shoppe and Minted-UK have them as well as the mint itself.