Starck Reality: The Trend of Boutique Mintages
Low mintage coins like Yu-Gi-Oh! series spark collector interest.
A visit to a local coin shop recently spurred some pricing additions to NumisMaster. In the generic world silver coin pile were three 2022 1-ounce silver $2 coins from Niue from the “Yu-Gi-Oh!” Japanese manga series.
I knew these coins existed but had never seen them in person. And there’s a good reason: the 2022 release of eight 1-ounce silver coins featuring characters from the series only had mintages of 250 per design.
This is part of a larger trend for the last decade or more, where coin producers are issuing coins with extremely low mintages, what I call “boutique mintages.” A mintage of 250 1-ounce silver coins in an American series would be unheard of but is entirely normal for the modern market, which is rife with coins leveraging licensed characters and/or featuring special effects like color or jewels.
As is often the case, these coins were sold through an exclusive distributor and, once sold out, made limited appearances in the market. Pricing such coins can be challenging, with spotty sales results to consider alongside the issue price. In the case of these three coins, they were issued individually in tamper-resistant packaging or as part of two-coin sets.
The coins I found at the coin shop are cataloged in NumisMaster as KM #5087 (Blue-Eyes White Dragon), KM #5088 (the Dark Magician), and KM #5090 (Seto Kaiba). KM #5087 retailed for $69.99, and current eBay sales (sold transactions) show that the value for that coin is about at issue price. KM #5090 retailed for $59.99, and sold transactions show that it, too, has a value around and even slightly higher than the issue price.
The final coin in my discovery, KM #5088, was issued at $99.99. There is a void of sold transactions to consider when pricing this, so we settled on values based on the issue price and current market offerings, understanding that the actual sale price might be lower than the more optimistic values that some sellers hope with their listings.
The fact that I could buy each of these at $36 per coin suggests a gap between market understanding and market value. The sellers didn’t realize the coins were rare and had a market value of more than double the amount they sold for.
It’s these opportunities for arbitrage that make the hunt so fun.
You may also like:
Jeff Starck is the Market Analyst for Numismaster.com and is a lifelong collector and writer. His appreciation for and interest in world coins and writing allows him to share the hobby with others.
