Tuvalu Transformers - Opinions?

Well I went out last month and brought both coins for the 2 grandchildren,there well presented though they have a glue stuck to the obverse of the plastic holder to keep them (the plastic holder) from falling out,does detract from the packaging.
just a couple of photos




This isn't an investment buy just very expensive curiosity.

They are both colored.

Agree with xshift. Course, maybe someday I'll become a coin snob, too ;)

As an investment I don't know but as a curiosity for the grand-kids there rapped and to me that's the only thing that counts,these coins are there's to do what ever they want with when they grow older and are more responsible,you take the 50 years of the Barbie coin I brought for my daughter so who's to say that that's a good or bad investment I think only time will tell.

regards to all

Interesting comments! I think it's unfair to say that "All these types of things are bad investments". Much depends on the work itself and who did it, and how, and why... and of course, how many were made.

In the case of the Shire coins that I made, it was for the love of the story. When I started making those I had no idea of making a business of it. I imagined the coins that would have been used by the people in the story and dreamed the so-called "pirate fantasy" of having a whole chest of them to run my fingers through whilst chortling in piratical glee. The quest to actually make them was epic, and I made just ten of the very first ones (1401 die-1) copper penny. I sold them for a dollar. They don't surface very often. Last I saw, one went for over $300. Was it a good investment? Yes, but no coin collectors bought those, only people who were steeped in the stories and the fan network even knew about them. The most prolific one was the 1403 copper penny, of which slightly more than 10,000 were made. (and that was with a manual screw press and took me two weeks, oh my aching back!) I sold those for a dollar apiece or for 50 cents each when purchased in rolls of 48. Aside from fans who simply wanted them to share with friends, several dealers bought them by the roll and they still appear on ebay regularly where they generally go for about $5 apiece. So was that one a good investment for the dealers? I think yes!

Yes the market is limited, but if the thematic content of the object and the artistic execution of the idea is compelling then the real fans of the fantasy will want them.

The key feature of what I'm doing is that these are coins FROM the fantasy, not ABOUT it! It is a key feature of bad collectibles that they do silly things like putting images of film characters on the coin. That completely blows the fantasy because that coin could never exist IN THAT WORLD!

I would never suggest that somebody buy fantasy coins strictly as an investment. But if there are compelling coins that are related to a theme that you enjoy, then buy all means obtain some, or even many. For it is a property of coins in the pocket that they help us form a sense-of-place that can make the fantasy more real and therefore more enjoyable. What better investment can there be?

On the other hand, there's the investment on the part of the coinmaker. Some of my projects do okay in terms of making back expenses, but some do not. For instance, some years ago I was very excited about the prospect of a King Arthur coin. I wanted it to be as authentic as possible... not some "Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" sort of caricature, but a coin emulating the style and fabric of a coin from the period in which the REAL King Arthur would have lived... about 500 AD. I engaged the numismatist and engraver Greg Franck-Weiby to design the dies for the piece, and he went all-out on it and did a fabulous job. It's inscribed in latin (of course) ARTORIUS DUX BELLORUM BRIT and beared a winged Victrix on reverse.

So when the dies were done and heat-treated and ready to go, The dies were exemplary (and unusually expensive) and I was so excited that I sank all the silver I had into the project, and struck 400 pieces, expecting them to sell out quickly.

Well... apparently nobody wants their Arthur mythos messed up with too much reality. The sales have always been anemic on those and it's not because the piece is not well done. That was years ago and I still have over half of them left. I can't bear to melt them because they're gorgeous, but I could really use the silver for other projects. Apparently the Arthur theme has just been run into the ground by too many people, and nobody really cares anymore. I even tried to get them into gift stores along the King Arthur bus tours route in Cornwall... to no avail. They didn't even want to look at them. If they were caps or tee shirts... oh yes! We'd love that! But the fantasy coin idea was too esoteric.

Even your grandmother -just offer them some money to do it.

Jeff

Well..., to start the argument that is present in a number of other threads -
"if silver hits $100 oz" --> at least you'd break even ;)

Garbage like this usually given out in micky dees Happy Meals in line with the movie rele ASE