Getting Serious About Comic Book Characters

NEW MARKETS CREATED FOR SUPER HERO COINS

- BY MICHAEL GAROFALO

2025 Superman Gold $50 CAC PR70DCAM. PHOTO BY JUSTIN LEE, COURTESY CAC GRADING, LLC

In the February/March 2025 issue of COINage, I wrote about the United States Mint as it embarked on an extraordinary innovation the likes of which it had never done before: The Mint was going to strike U.S. coins featuring images of comic book characters. It was preparing to issue circulating coins, commemorative coins, bullion coins and special issues under the authority granted to the Secretary of the Treasury for gold coins and medals. A new worldwide market was growing rapidly, primarily composed of non-collectors who wanted to collect coins bearing images of subjects that appealed to them.

The Royal Canadian Mint (RCM) and a handful of other sovereign mints had interest of the public you need products that feature pop culture topics. In 2013, to commemorate the 75th Anniversary of the appearance of Superman in the DC comics, a colorized version of the “Man of Steel” was placed on the reverse of a $20 face value Canadian one troy ounce 0.999 fine silver coin which had a limited mintage. Based on the success of that coin, the RCM created yet another Superman coin in 2016.

2025 Superman 1 ounce Silver Medal CAC MS70. PHOTO BY JUSTIN LEE, COURTESY CAC GRADING, LLC