The Perth Mint has issued four coins celebrating the 60th anniversary of fictional British Secret Service agent James Bond.
The four-piece set features one-ounce rectangular coins in gold proof and silver proof with colour plus one-ounce silver coins, each in a card, with both coloured and uncoloured versions.
The collection celebrates 60 years of Bond movies. Created by former intelligence officer and author Ian Fleming in 1953, the famous character played the leading role in 12 novels and two short story collections before producers Albert Broccoli and Harry Saltzman brought Bond to cinema screens for the first time in 1962.
The rectangular coins’ reverse (shown) portrays part of the official James Bond 60th anniversary logo, which incorporates the iconic ‘007’ gun design.
The British film firm Eon Productions, which primarily produces Bond moves, has released 25 Bond blockbusters to date. The spy has been played by six iconic actors, including Scotland’s Sean Connery, Australia’s George Lazenby, England’s Roger Moore and Timothy Dalton, Ireland’s Pierce Brosnan and most recently Daniel Craig, another English star.
Sixty years after the premiere of Dr. No, Bond continues to entertain worldwide audiences as one of the film industry’s longest-running and most successful franchises.
The collection was struck by the Perth Mint, based in Australia, and issued as legal tender under the authority of the Government of Tuvalu.
An independent Pacific Ocean island nation within the British Commonwealth, Tuvalu sits about 3,500 kilometres off of Australia’s northeast coast.