Jabba the Hutt $1 Silver-Plated Coin by the New Zealand Mint

The New Zealand Mint puts out a variety of commemorative coins featuring pop culture characters, and in 2011-2012 they had a line of Star Wars coins. I knew there was supposed to be a Jabba, and I checked the website for it occasionally, but never saw anything but the Millennium Falcon and Darth Vader boxed sets. I never saw the individual coins come up there, and since the Star Wars series is no longer even on their site, I thought that maybe it had never been released. But I recently found this on eBay, and thankfully it was relatively reasonable (about $20). There’s also a gold-plated version, but as that’s several times the price I’m passing for the moment. According to the back of the package, they put out 50,000 of these.

The coin features Jabba the Hutt and Queen Elizabeth (she’s the one on the right above…). I’m not sure how the color part is printed on the coin, but it’s a bit fancier than just a sticker. Also, the “Jabba the Hutt” name appears to be part of the coin itself, so it’s not as though every coin is identical with the exception of the colored area. It’s a nice looking coin with a fair amount of weight to it, but I don’t entirely understand the appeal of this kind of product.

Despite being put out by The New Zealand Mint, these issued by the tiny island country of Niue.