Kings of the low mintage bullion coin, Scottsdale Mint have certainly had a busy year with a broad offering of new silver and gold coins. The Fiji Mermaid, Cayman Islands Marlin, Congo Silverback, Samoan Seahorse, the Chinese Dragon for Cameroon, and the Ghanaian Leopard are just some of the new issues. In addition to those, there are new multi-coin programs like the Royal Arms of England, and Caribbean EC8.

Adding to the mix is the mints latest series – Pacific Dollars. An annual release, the Pacific Dollar will have a mintage quite a lot higher than Scottsdale’s usual numbers, although still not massive compared to the big guns. The one-ounce silver coin tops out at 250,000 ounces, with the one-ounce gold limited to 10,000 pieces. Both carry an identical design.

The design is actually really neat. The palm trees on an island motif is hardly new, but the artwork employed here is top-notch and bang on point. Just the coin name ‘PACIFIC DOLLAR’ is inscribed at the top, with the year date being incorporated into the design at bottom as a latent image – basically, one that becomes visible as you look at the coin from a different angle. It’s a neat security trick as the feature is hard to counterfeit easily.

Issued for Fiji, that nations neat emblem sits centrally on the obverse and there’s a polynesian-style border pattern near the rim that arcs around the coin information inscriptions. The whole coin is quite tropical in flavour and a success in our view. Available now, the gold ships encapsulated, with the silver coming in tubes. Those wanting a single silver coin should have no trouble picking one up, however. Premiums are pretty low as well.

Every time we think Scottsdale has finished its 2018 run of bullion releases another one appears, and there are still issues in the 2018 EC8 Caribbean program yet to come. Whatever else sneaks in before years end, it has been an impressive year for the US producer and cements their position as a go to for the stacker and the collector.