Game of Thrones coins

[the maid of woodlynne]

Thanks, Tom! My FM coin arrived today (that was FAST) and I love it.

The pics of the Golden Dragons are fantastic. I will most likely pick up a set of 3. :)

[GypsyDRB]

Yah, same.

[Master of Coin]

I just revised the mintage list in the first post of this thread to update with respect to the latest Faceless Man and Dragon mintages. The strikings for Daemon Blackfyre are done! Pics are up on the website and on our facebook page. We're starting to assemble the sets. They'll be in a 5x7 hard plastic sleeve with a cool printed insert with a lot of info about the three kings. Pre-release samples have gone out to certain retailers. And we just completed the 8th pressing of the Faceless Man... ran all the way to 6,284 this time. Whew! It may not sound like very many, considering the number of coins the large mints produce, but that's a crate weighing about 38 kilograms, such that it takes two people to carry it.

The brass dragon coins weigh quite a bit more, at 14 grams apiece. So a thousand dragons weighs 14 kilos. In the story believe Robert Baratheon sponsors a tourney in whcih the prize is to be 25,000 dragons. (Can anybody confirm that?) Think about it for a moment... 25,000 dragons at 14 grams each would weigh 350 kilograms, or about 770 pounds! It would take a laden baggage train of at least seven ponies just to carry that much gold home... if you could get there in one piece! That was a HUGE prize... like offering 25 million as the prize for American Gladiator... enough money to buy a good sized castle, or an army of ten thousand.

We've also got three different badge ribbons for Worldcon ordered... you can preview the designs on the facebook page. ShirePostMint. One will say VALAR DOHAERIS and be available to anybody who can show a Faceless Man coin. One will say THE DRAGON HAS THREE HEADS and that will be freely available as long as they last. And the last is not Game of Thrones at all but it says DEJAH THORIS IS MY QUEEN, and is in honor of the 100th anniversary of Barsoom stories, starting with "the Princess of Mars" in 1912. That badge ribbon will be available to anyone who buys the Dejah Thoris silver Tee-Pi coin, The Sword Badge Ribbon Pin, or who declares their loyalty to Queen Dejah by saying to one of us "I fight for Helium!"

More news soon!

[Master of Coin]

We finally decided to do a Kickstarter in order to buy enough gold to make a few sets of the dragons in real gold. It will also function as a pre-order for the brass dragons, either as singles or sets. Never done one of these before! You can also see the tee shirts that we'll have at Worldcon.

http://www.kickstart...en-dragon-coins

Have fun!

Tom

[Master of Coin]

Just saying.... a copper penny of Walder Frey has been seen. Some examples are defaced with a big "X" across his ugly mug. I think there will be some at WorldCon. Pics are on the Facebook page at www.facebook.com/ShirePostMint

Badge ribbons are in-hand for WorldCon!

[Domnhall]

Yeah, so now we have a video on the Kickstarter:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1717678842/game-of-thrones-westeros-golden-dragon-coins

[King Wayne-1st of His Name]

I got the Faceless Man from you. Great work!

Other GOT fans at my job are jealous. Valar Morghulis.

[Fules Au]

Other GOT fans at my job are jealous.

I know the feeling. I have had a few offers from co-workers to buy some of my earlier pressings, but I cannot bare to let them go. Perhaps one day I will sell some of the loose 6th pressing coins in my collection (I have 51), but for now they are essential to playing Westeros Rummy with my friends. Instructions for Westeros Rummy can be found here.

[Master of Coin]

And..... YES! The Kickstarter has been fully funded! So it's GOING to happen, and anybody else who wants to pile on... that is essentially a pre-order for the unreleased items that are not on eBay or online stores yet.

[Shnorge]

So you want 1 ounce of gold for a 1/2 ounce gold dragon? Or was that just pre-kickstarter? No way I'm getting one at that price, but for a bit lower I'm quite interested.

Will this be a limited-time-availability thing or will there be more chances in the future?

[Master of Coin]

I understand. Real gold is weird that way. That was an offer I made pre-kickstarter and now available only to the people who replied and have already made those pre-arrangements with me. There will be no special-price deals on the real-gold dragons. In future there could be more produced, but they will be made only by prepaid special arrangement, not as stock items. The $5000/set price only holds unless and until gold goes over $1500/oz again. Then we will have to re-price it.

But that's only the real-gold... the brass ones are really almost as cool and will be much more widely available and, unless we get overwhelmed by demand, they are planned to be a stock item.

It's interesting that people feel completely differently about gold than about any other material. Nobody ever asks "how much is the iron worth in that sword?" or "why is this copper coin five dollars when it only has eight cents worth of copper in it?". Jewelry stores typically charge four or more times the melt value for gold rings and chains and bracelets and whatnot... commonplace items with no collectible value and no licensing fees to pay, and nobody seems to mind. Yet it is my experience that people often balk at paying even double weight for a real-gold licensed collectible fantasy token made in astonishingly low numbers. And that's why it's taken us so long to get around to doing this, and that's why there will be so few made and why they will be so rare in the future. It's just how it is, and I totally understand.

[Shnorge]

I have already made a Kickstarter pledge toward the set of 3 brass dragons (love them in the photos!), was just trying to figure out if I should act now on getting a gold one or not.

Mainly wanted to know if there would only be one round of the real gold ones made, ever, and then that would be it -- didn't want to miss my chance if it was the only one.

Instead, I am comfortable waiting now and will consider that purchase at some point in the future.

Thanks for the response!

[GypsyDRB]

Tom - got my set of 3 brass dragons today. Kudos to you on the layout and presentment. Very nice.

http://www.dropbox.c...0913_142448.jpg

https://www.dropbox....0913_142528.jpg

https://www.dropbox....0913_142554.jpg

Happy to participate in your kickstarter campaign. I'm actually back on the site buying some more coins :)

[Master of Coin]

Hi Gypsy:

Thanks for the note and pics! Glad you liked 'em! The real-gold ones are finally done and the last of them shipping out today. Total mintage of this first 22k gold pressing: 8 Jaehaerys, 4 Joffrey, 4 Daemon. There are two full sets still available, no singles. Pics of the 22k versions are up on the kickstarter now. (link in one of the posts up above)

The brass sets up on the online store now, and also at ThinkGeek, and coming soon to the HBO shop. Brass Dragon singles are now up on eBay.

Have fun! Tom

[Master of Coin]

My assistant Don is installing a translator on the pages of the website, so our non-English-speaking friends can choose a language and the pages will automatically translate. Is anyone else astonished by this technology? Just a few years ago it was unthinkable... and now it's here! It's almost like we've landed in a science-fiction story... only it's real.

[Master of Coin]

New Eddard Coins!

As many of you have heard, the old Eddard Stark half-stag that has been a mainstay of the Game of Thrones series for some time... will be no more. The dies were ruined several months ago in a brockage incident at the press. Since that time they have been selling rather well and we're down to just a few left. So I asked Joe Paonessa to remake the die, with some changes. Two new die-2 versions have just gone on sale today.

The new Eddard Stark silver stag goes up to the full weight, 1/10 troy ounce, just like the Aegon, Aerys, Balon, and Torrhen stags. The obverse image is the same, but all the lettering has been redone, and most importantly, the dire-wolf sigil on reverse has been redone to a snarling wolf's head in profile. Kudos to Joe Paonessa for the engraving on that one! We're releasing these in mint-fresh condition so as to preserve the beauty of the die work. I especially like the way the hair lies on the wolf's neck. Here are some on eBay at: http://www.ebay.com/itm/141089826858

We also used the same dies on a much heavier copper blank to make a two-penny or "half-groat" piece. Bigger than a penny but smaller than a star... they're about the size and weight of a US five cent piece. The coppers are brutalized mercilessly in order to emulate the wear and tarnish that would appear on an old coin that has been carried and used for decades. It's especially interesting to put the silver and copper next to each other and see which parts of the design wear first and which are persistant. Here are some on eBay at: http://www.ebay.com/itm/141089833518

And check the "seller's other auctions" while you're there.... there might even be a real 22k gold dragon set!

Have fun!

Tom

[Master of Coin]

Master Sets!

Over the last couple years I have had quite a few people ask about a "set of everything" of the Game of Thrones coins by Shire Post Mint. We've been doing these for ten years now! The problem is that some of the earliest types were completely sold out years ago, so a totally complete set including all possible variations is now impossible. But I went back through some boxes and drawers of old stock, and I was able to pull out enough of the early types to make three Master Sets of 48 different coins, and two Super-Master sets that include the 22k real-gold dragon coins and the uber-rare type1 brothel token from The Peach, so there are a total of 52 coins in that Super-Master set.

I'm still working on the packaging for these... I'm thinking to put them up in three bound booksafes, such that they may be shelved along with your other Game of Thrones books. The 22k real gold coins come in a fitted wooden case.

So there are just three Master Sets available. Total of the regular prices adds up to $1095.00

I will make a nice packaging presentation for them, and for the next seven days, until noon Central time on November 5th 2013, they'll be available to members of this forum for $1000 even. After that I'll withdraw the offer and put one up auction-style on eBay.

And there are just two Super-Master sets available. Total of the regular prices adds up to $6,115.00

I will make a nice packaging presentation for them, and for the next seven days, until noon Central time on November 5th 2013, they'll be available to members of this forum for $6000 even. After that I'll withdraw the offer and put one up auction-style on eBay.

This is the tenth anniversary of the Shire Post Mint coining project with George R.R. Martin. When these sets are gone that's it. I will be able to make regular sets of all the current types... but there will be no more of the early types available except on the aftermarket, if you can find them. For the completist collectors, this is the last chance to obtain the early types, still at the regular price!

Have fun!

Tom Maringer

[bgc]

I'll take one of the $1000 master sets if it's still available.

[Master of Coin]

You've got it! Please email me to make arrangements. [email protected]

[ig88b]

I just noticed on the mintage page, the huge disparity between the weight of the Robert Baratheon copper star type1 and 2. I have the type1 coin--what's the difference between it and the others?