In 2013 the New Zealand Mint released a new series called the endangered species, the first coin was a very unappreciated coloured coin depictin the Venerable Collared Lizard, in my opinion a stunning coin in proof finish and a mintage of 2,000. Im not really a fan of coloured coins but if they are tastefully done then they can brighten up a coin collection.
The Venerable Collared Lizard shows the endangerd species on a desert background and part of a globe on the left. The lizard is from Mexico.
The second coin in the series released in 2014 was the critically acclaimed Black Rhinoceros depicting a rhino with its reflection in the lake, an amazing coin and i remember being disappointed this coin was not nominated for coin of the year, again a low mintage of 2,000 this coin introduced alot of interest in the endangered species collection. In 1993 there were only 2,300 Rhinos left in the wild, by the time this coin was minted in 2014 the population had incresed to over 5,000. The only critisism of this coin was they did not contribute any of the sales to aid in the conservation of any of the animals.
The third coin is an amazing Bengal Tiger which was released in 2015. It carried on with the same theme as the rhino and showed the tiger walking by a lake and showing its rippled reflection. In 2015 there were estimated to be just 2,500 Bengal Tigers left in the world.
The great selling point of these coins were the packaging, each coin came in its own wooden crate, the lid held on with small magnets and came with an individual coa, the crate boxes are just something else.
But, and this is a big but... I stopped collecting these coins when New Zealand mint decided to rush out each subsequent release, the gorilla, hippo, panda and whatever else were released very quickly to wrap up the series and in my opinion were not of the same quality in the design and looked cheap. I was hoping to get one of these every year and build up a stunning set but i was not happy when New Zealand mint decided to just throw the last few coins out to move on to better things, even to this day i am reluctant to buy any New Zealand mint coins and will not put any hope or effort into collecting any of their series and i have no interest in finishing this set, well unless i spot one of the coins for a steal.
Anyway hope everyone has had a fantastic Easter and i have some propper bobby dazzlere on their way, ive had a mad spending spre and spent the profit i made off steem when it shot up purely on coins so i shall be showing off my spoils.
Thank you for your continued support of SteemSilverGold
They ones you have are very nice especially the lizard and rhino, then they go downhill like you said. The boxes are so cool too it's a shame they didn't put more love into the rest of em!
Yea after the rhino they could have made so much more of these coins, the gorilla just looked a lazy design attempt, it would have been cool to see it sat by the water and putting its finger in and the water rippling instead of reflecting, the pygmy hippo could have been submerged but take all year to think about the design and release just the 1, it could have still been a relevant set to be collecting, but i do love the lizard, so glad i picked one up. And thank you for supporting people here on steemit, a proper cool community.
I remember having seen unboxings of these on YT and the crates were more popular than the coin. I have some NZ mint gold coins like Turtlesand a year of the monkey coin.
Yea the crates were a selling feature but the rhino did blow people away then NZ Mint just spoilt the collection and churned out endless star wars tosh, such a shame.
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