In 2025, as part of a licensing partnership announced in July between the U.S. Mint and DC Comics, the Mint will launch its Comic Art product line, featuring iconic superheroes on 1/2 ounce gold $50 coins (.9999 fine), 2-1/2 ounce and 1-ounce silver medals (.999 fine), and 1.2-inch clad medals, all in a proof finish. The series is designed to appeal to a younger, more diverse audience and encourage their involvement in numismatics.
In more recent developments, designs have been recommended for the series’ first release, which will feature Superman. Reviewed by the Commission of Fine Arts (CFA) on Sept. 19 and later by the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee (CCAC) on Sept. 24, both panels approved the Mint’s presented designs with only a few suggested refinements.
The obverse design, crafted by U.S. Mint Chief Engraver Joseph Menna, presents a unique depiction of Superman flying over his family farm, while the reverse, created by one of the Mint’s Medallic Artists, delves into how Clark Kent’s upbringing shaped his courage, compassion, and sense of responsibility.
In their review of the Superman designs, the CFA noted the following, in part:
"In their support of the proposed pairing, the Commission members suggested consideration of minimizing or removing the reverse design’s background clouds, expressing concern that these would obscure other elements of the composition, including the head of the young Clark Kent and the gold coin’s inscription, ‘United States of America’. They also noted that the juxtaposition of a vintage truck and a modern jet on the reverse may be confusing, and they suggested considering the use of a more contemporaneous propeller airplane consistent with the original comic. For the obverse, they commented that the artwork lacks a consistent character, with the barn shown in more realistic detail than the more stylized features characteristic of comic books, and they suggested that the barn could be stylized accordingly."
During discussions in the CCAC meeting, Mint officials noted that the truck on the reverse design would be generalized to avoid featuring a specific brand. In the end, CCAC members passed a motion to recommend the presented designs.
Series Background, Limits, and Future Expectations
As planned, the series will highlight three DC characters per year for three years, totaling nine designs. Each year, the designs will be struck in gold and silver, with the matching clad medals likely released the following year.
No mintage or sales time limits are expected for the 1-ounce silver medals and clad medals. However, the gold coins and 2.5-ounce silver medals are likely to be serialized, with mintage limits and available for just one year. Additionally, the clad medals are expected to be offered as sets of three rather than individually.
Alongside Superman, the first-year releases will include depictions of Batman and Wonder Woman.
During the CCAC meeting, Kirk Gillis, Acting Associate Director of Sales and Marketing for the U.S. Mint, revealed that the Mint has been in discussions with Marvel, with hopes of expanding the Comic Art program to include coins and medals featuring Marvel characters.
How many Superman coins has Canada alone minted? And then there are all the other mints that have made Superman rounds. The best I can do is sit back enjoy the show and hope people have a good time.
Kia99,
“The best I can do is sit back enjoy the show and hope people have a good time.”
A splendid outlook indeed and one I should definitely take more of to heart myself.
Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s a superman quarter someone threw up in the air! Ok, I’ll go back to sleep now. 😀
For once I am almost speechless. With a virtually endless number of possible topics to celebrate which would be highly appropriate to have appear on coins and/or medals, the Mint somehow comes to the sorely misbegotten conclusion that these inescapably lightweight comic book inventions are the most suitable subjects it can present. As for the idea of this particular enterprise being able to serve as a sufficiently persuasive encouragement and/or incentive for younger people to get into collecting, who that is young enough to appreciate these strictly adolescent fantasies concurrently has access to the kind of very serious money it… Read more »
Kaiden, No kidding! I don’t really care what the Mint produces, if I’m not interested then I just pass on it. However, I will say, along with Kaiser, I doubt kids are going to shell out minimally $100 bucks for a silver “what” proof!! It’s just laughable as far as I’m concerned. I will be shocked if this attracts younger kids and gets them into collecting coins. It’s just too expensive to collect coins. Geez, a lot of us Adults are having a hard time shelling out the dough for these Mint releases. It’s just getting waaay toooo EXPENSIVE!!! Are… Read more »
AKBob, Recently I’ve found myself on the cusp of whether to believe one of two possibilities: 1) That in spite of a whole series of rather ill considered product and pricing decisions the Mint still wants to hold onto its numismatic customer base and as such is trying many different tactics and engaging in all sorts of experiments with the hope of being able to do so. Or, on the other hand… 2) The reality is that the Mint would like nothing better than to be rid of the likes of us collectors and our very specific and particular needs… Read more »
one would hope that they do some sort of marketing survey to figure out where the potential demand is before doing these coins. but, alas, I am guessing this is more of a result of some lobbying effort than a coin-buyer survey
c_q,
As the barker would shout from his corner of the carnival booth, give that man his choice of a prize from the very top shelf because he just hit the bullseye!
When I get my Wonder Woman quarter, I’ll try to find Lynda Carter and ask her to bless it for me.
The Mint has done it again.
At the age Superboy is depicted on the reverse of the coin or medal, there would have been no commercial jet planes in the skies for him to look at, even with telescopic vision.
Not that it matters much. I don’t know how many comic book fans are able, let alone willing, to pay the $1,800.00 dollars or more it will cost to buy the coin.
morgan,
Excellent point; that nail just got hit right on the head. This reminds me of a knights in armor movie I saw in the 1950’s where if you happened to look through the castle wall’s archers slits you could see cars driving by not too far away. Anachronisms can either ruin a scene or make it marvelously humorous; in this case the latter prevailed.
So many viable subjects, Projects Mercury & Gemini missions, Apollos, Apollo 1, Challenger, Endeavor, Hamilton. Superman, first younger kids or kids, don’t read Superman comics. 5he audience is middle age men. Anyway, the comic has/had gone woke. Uberman making out with a dude, etc.….. anyway this gets a 2 1/2z Ag medal for what $400….?
A more diverse audience? How….
John Q. Coinage,
I believe you’ve just identified the most likely “target audience” for the Mint’s unduly pricy Superman gold coin and silver medal releases: comfortably well off middle-aged but thematically childlike male personages for whom neither the substantial outlay of cash nor the ongoing adherence to fantasy is in any way problematic.
How do you lose $2300?
By buying this nice SP70 2014-D 50th Anniversary Unc Set Clad coin last April, that’s how.
1 of 4 in the top grade with a valuation of $3500…
Orig GC auction photo below….
Special coin,
why not send it in for a fresh, fancy holder with a web TruView pic with all the statistical trimmings!
New, fresh holder pic below, and the PCGS coin link for my coin below too..
https://www.pcgs.com/cert/47081080
What’s the problem? So far so good! All the CoinFact info checks out(mintage 197,608, 75% Copper, 25% Nickel)…
Here, I’ll put this expensive 2014-D SP70 clad coin next to my other 2014-D SP69 clad coin that I have on hand…
Question: What’s the easiest way to tell if a coin is Silver vs Copper Clad?
That’s what I thought…
Here’s a photo of my 2014-D SP70 “Clad” coin next to both of my 2014-P&D SP69 ”Clad” Coins…
Huh!??
PCGS missed it–twice while in their hands. Me too until tonight, I always thought something was off with this coin?
The 2014-D “Silver” 50th anniversary set “MS70” coin is worth about $50-100 bucks.
I might be out $2300, as I bought the “Clad” coin for $2400 last April.
PCGS missed it? Great Collections missed it? I missed it. The coin has been mislabeled/mis-identified imo..It’s a bit heavier too.
Now what E1?
All?
……
Looks like the mint mark is wrong too. I would try to get your money back from PCGS and or GC. It’s worth a try.
My mistake, mint mark is correct. From my iPhone I thought I saw an S.
East Coast Guru, initially I also noticed what I thought may be a possible D over S mint mark on the TruView picture and thought perhaps the coin had been altered? This wouldn’t make any sense to me however, as Rick pointed out his coin is silver and one would have had to altered a 2014 S Enhanced Uncirculated silver or an S proof silver. Not much, if any upside to creating a D mint silver from an S. Definitely the finish looks like neither an EU nor PF. There could have been a mistake in the die manufacturing process… Read more »
Wow Rick, quite a conundrum to say the least! Since your were relying on an accurate GC listing, in addition to certification by a well respected and very well known TPG company, I’d say both those parties are who you need to involve or contact. They are both equally guilty IMO. You should be asking for and expect a full refund of your expenditures, both at auction, as well as “TruView” grading fees IMO. You explained, quite clearly, the processes you went through in order to acquire, then get re-holdered. I don’t see why this wouldn’t be possible? I’m able… Read more »
As far as I can tell, the coin was submitted as a clad-D, but in reality it was a Silver coin from the 4 coin Mint set. PSGS missed it, along with everyone else.
PCGS will happily reholder their mistake with the proper label at no charge with free shipping. I have done this with a mistake they made with a 2014-P clad coin(they labelled it a Silver coin)ironically. They won’t reimburse me for what I paid for the coin IMO… The pic below is what I have slabbed up(circled). It’s worth $50-100 on a good day, not $2400….
This situation of Ricks brings up another question I have about TPGers. If I send in, what appears to be a very high grade coin, how do I know I am getting my own coin back and that my 70 wasn’t give to someone else and the other person’s 69 wasn’t sent back to me?
A PCGS slabbed coin always has the industry number noted to the left of the cert #…
“PCGS / Industry #:530183” tells us it’s a clad coin from the 50th Unc Set…Fun Fact: Search PCGS for Industry # 530183, and what do you get?…
My $50 Silver coin highlighted in all of its $3500 Clad glory LOL-Not…
.·´¯
(>▂<)´¯·.https://www.pcgs.com/coinfacts/coin/2014-d-50c-50th-anniversary-unc-set/530183
Here’s another fun fact;
Below is a photo of my other 2014-D Clad, except that it is under Industry #531369(First Day of Issue-Denver release)..
And again, my coin is the highlighted coin on the PCGS page…
And yes, it’s a real clad coin…
https://www.pcgs.com/coinfacts/coin/2014-d-50c-50th-anniversary-unc-set-first-day-issue-denver/531369
Rick,
I can see you’re obviously on the right track as to which agency ought to be held responsible for each of the two entirely separate errors committed along the way pertaining to the mis-identification of that coin. Now it’s just a matter of contacting both of those enterprises in order for you to be legally and properly recompensed for your overpayments.
CaliSkier,
Many thanks for the link; the content it led to was superbly informative.
You’re welcome Kaiser and I’m glad you found it useful or informative.
Rick, I’m sure that for you most disturbing part of this entire sequence of errors is the amount of cash you are currently short of in regard to the much lesser coin you ended up with as opposed to the very special one you had every reason to assume you were in fact purchasing. On the other hand, for the coin buying public at large the most egregiously disturbing component of this mis-identification and subsequent pricing error debacle is rather likely that both the auction house and the TPG failed to detect and correct this very serious mistake. That, I… Read more »
Rick,
Since this whole mixup clearly started with the coin being incorrectly identified for the purpose of a Great Collections auction, it would appear that GC is precisely the one and only appropriate party to request and have reason to expect a refund from.
I’ll disagree, GC was passing a “professionally” graded coin from client A, to client B, nothing more. Every week they process thousands of coins coming in, and going out. Could they have caught the error? Sure, then what? I don’t know, then they’re stuck with the coin, and got rid of it ASAP? Maybe yes, maybe no? Lesson learned on my part? YES. This whole mixup clearly started with PCGS when they graded & encapsulated the coin carelessly and in error. They seem to have followed the customers inputted submission specifics, including the critical PCGS Industry Number. Of which the… Read more »
Rick, it isn’t as if you are accusing Great Collections of intentionally misleading you. You have a valid claim and they should be able to contact the original seller and arbitrate a settlement of sorts or so it would seem. The owner Ian Russell, also would seemingly be a reasonable man and likely has seen, been exposed to and dealt with all aspects of both selling and buying. The GC site states: “GreatCollections abides by the PNG Code of Ethics GreatCollections’ owner, Ian Russell, is a member of the prestigious Professional Numismatists Guild (PNG Member 785) and adheres to the… Read more »
Additionally, Rick, remember that you aren’t accusing anyone of anything, just simply stating facts on your unfortunate discovery. No reason you should hang your head, feel stupid and chalk this up as an unfortunate mistake or expensive learning experience. Do the prudent thing and contact Great Collections and have “them” tell you, that they can’t help you and you’re out of luck, before just throwing in the towel and giving in. Also consider reaching out to the PNG. This is none of my business, however, although I could be mistaken, I would think that they would be completely understanding and… Read more »
Thanks for your concern Cali for sure. I’ll check it out too, unless you hear something first. There are no accusations, head hanging, or feeling stupid. Not from me. There was a lesson learned as to when taking delivery of anything however… I’ll be busy out of town starting Mon, so while GC is on the growing list of tasks, it’s not first… One thing that I’ll opine on is this, whether you’re a member of any organization such as PNG, with an unchecked adherence to the code of ethics, or if your company presents some fluffy mission statements, gives… Read more »
You’re welcome Rick and while you were posting, I was gathering data, giving this “Dead Horse” one last swift kick! So forgive me for the additional post of which you’re assuredly aware? I think highly of you and just would really love for you to somehow, some way, be able to recoup your hard earned “Benjamins”! “All Coins Are Unconditionally Guaranteed Genuine: All coins sold by Great Collections are unconditionally guaranteed to be genuine and are covered by our generous return policy.” They use the words “generous return policy”. Ask them if they would please be willing to be “generous… Read more »
Yes I’ve read the policy and have used it for a GC return.
After receiving the item(confirmed signature via FedEx)you have 24 hrs to return the coin upon Raeleen’s approval…
Look, GC, in their hasty auction processing room checked the coin against the PCGS database, just like I do for every certified coin that I buy(including that coin!!). It looked legit enough(to a staffer)and off it went to the photo booth. We’ll see what they say!?
This error originated with PCGS. We’ll see what happens!?
Looks like I bought the “label” instead of the coin this time Lol…
Rick,
“Looks like I bought the “label” instead of the coin this time Lol…”
You said it brother, but the fat lady has yet to sing. On the other hand all those purposefully concocted elusive codicils seemingly following all of their vaunted “iron clad guarantees” appear to afford them more than enough well-oiled wiggle room to result in this being a variety of gambling loss write-off for you.
Rick,
“…if your company presents some fluffy mission statements,
gives little comfort to me in the end…”
“Trust in them is not an issue for me in the least.”
It looks to me like this matter is currently balanced on a couple of either potentially or actually contradictory beliefs and whichever one of these arguments ultimately wins out might well be the deciding factor for how you decide to seal the deal.
Rick,
“I’ve spent 10s of thousands with GC over the last few months alone.”
One would imagine this should give you some clout with them.
Rick, In this case I feel like I might have a pretty good case to hold on to my idea of how I believe this ought to proceed. After all, when an auction house sells anything one wpuld imagine it is incumbent upon that facility to establish both the provenance and the authenticity of the item to be auctioned. Clearly, if Great Collections had in fact done their due diligence they would have immediately discovered that what the coin’s holder stated was not in fact true for the item inside. In this case they were aware of the provenance but… Read more »
Rick,
“This whole mixup clearly started with PCGS when they graded & encapsulated the coin carelessly and in error. They seem to have followed the customers inputted submission specifics, including the critical PCGS Industry Number.”
All well and good, but when PCGS was in the process of grading this coin wouldn’t they have looked at it and seen that is was silver rather than clad?
The more I learn about this incident the more obvious it becomes that this was a perfect storm of sequential, subsequent errors, each replicating its predecessor.
It all makes me wonder if someone made the old switcheroo of the real McCoy for a silver. Don’t know how the encapsulation production works at the TPG, but I’d guess it happened AFTER the grader verified the weight, metal content, and the grade. Some shenanigans here for sure!
DaveSWFL,
And if that is the case the most likely suspect would be some individual shuffling about the TPG’s encapsulation department. Besides, how much should one ever really trust a “slabber”?
Rick, I thot I had problems with PCGS but I think yours is much worse than mine were. Although PCGS made mistake after mistake with my coins, I persevered thru it, letting most of their mistakes just go by the wayside, I didn’t want to have to deal with PCGS any longer in regards to the 68 coins I sent into them this past Spring! I am still quite miffed (that’s putting it mildly only because there’s young collectors that reading this) at PCGS. So man6 mistakes and errors with the coins I sent in. The biggest mistake they did… Read more »
Thanks AKBob. PCGS makes mistakes all the time. This one is just bigger than the rest of them in my case… I’ll let the 2 other parties know what happened, and we’ll see what they say. The policies that they have in place cover themselves outright. They missed the error, and so did I. Bad on them. Bad on me. One way or another it’ll work out with this coin… PCGS made the mistake originally, and everyone else after that became complacent, even PCGS on the reholder of the same coin! People can parce my statements and backseat drive all… Read more »
Rick,
“People can parce my statements and backseat drive all that they want about this situation and what they would, or wouldn’t do. I can appreciate that as well actually, so have at it!”
“There are no grudges on my end. “Happy coin escape club” As E1 once said….”
Now that is what I would call having not just a truly fantastic attitude but additionally so an extremely generous and uplifting outlook. Kudos, my friend!
Cali, Since I know you purchased a couple of the First of 50,000 Star Privy coins, I’ll share with you that I purchased one in the white core and 5 in the black core. I just sold three, doubled my money. So the three I still have are basically free. I plan on selling at least two of them and I might keep just one. The black core ones I knew would be a hit as there’s hundreds if not thousands of ASE collector’s that love their black core graded coins. The three I sold were the black core ones.… Read more »
Good call, and good move AK and Cali,
You acted quickly with selling those Bob, which is key I think in this case? And you were right!
I have no problem atmitting I was wrong! So great job!
Give it a while, as the price might relax on these? I do think that FOMO has a role in robust prices at the moment!?
Rick, You are most likely spot on. Sell them as fast as I can while the FOMO is still hot! These won’t have a great deal of upside in a few short months I figure. I think it’ll be a desirable coin but with a mintage of 500K and possibly up to 1 million, these won’t have a high premium at all. There will be plenty of these to go around. All ASE collectors will have to have at least one of these babies to have a complete set of ASE’s!! When something comes out that has a good potential… Read more »
Great advice!
You and Evil Flipper could have a talk, remember him!?
The MNB was a great place to learn what you’ve learned with all of the Mint releases that took place, and with all those characters over there. Seems that there’s less exciting Mint releases these days, but probably not?..
Here there’s a pretty good balance between the flippers, slabbers, and traditional collectors. Many have all 3 going on, or just one. Doesn’t matter in the end, as long as you’re enjoying the coin hunt!
Rick, Yes, I remember Evil Flipper over on MNB! He wasn’t posting anything the last few years of MNB if I remember correctly. Yes, again, I learned a great deal reading and contributing to MNB. I still miss it. There were quite a few characters on MNB. I remember when there were a couple Bullies on there two, many years ago! I’ll bet there were collectors that stopped reading MNB just because of the “meanness” of a couple/few participants. I enjoy flipping, nothing like patting yourself on the back when you get a Homerun, like Ricks 2020 v75 Gold Eagle!… Read more »
AKBob, from what you and E1 have recently said about CAG, I sure wish I had the opportunity to have read his postings on MNB. It sounds like he understood the power of gold.
AKBob, I’m stoked for you and you were super wise to “strike” while the iron was/is hot! I don’t feel like long term, the white holder 1 of 1st 50,000 will hold up value wise, however I could be wrong? I wanted only one and was too cheap to miss out on free shipping by buying 2. Much will depend on how liberal NGC/PCGS are with handing out 70 grades IMO. I figured I might gift the other one to my brother for Christmas even though, he’s on the naughty list! We will see… Those Black Label limited edition versions… Read more »
Cali, Funny you brought up the 2011 25th Anniversary Silver Eagle Set! I purchased 5 sets from the Mint, I actually got thru on my phone, lol! I flipped them! This was my very first time flipping. I sold all 5 sets, still sealed/unopened for $750 each set. I paid $199 for each set. I made good money off those. I also purchased individually 20 of the 2011 P and 20 of the 2011 S off a well known dealer, that didn’t cherry pick them. I sent them in for grading. I sold all of them, the 70’s sold the… Read more »
that reverse is so intricate i don’t see how they can get it anywhere close to what is pictured when actually striking metal.
c_q, you are pretty much spot on IMO. Many times the artist drawing just do not translate well when it comes to die prep, execution and engraving. Plus, once you consider the relative small size of a 1/2oz gold coin, the reverse designs and even the obverse for that matter are a bit “too busy”. Once in hand you end up having to use a magnifying glass to make out the details. A way the Mint could try to help out with this problem, particularly on these Superman issues would be to make them “enhanced”, using multiple finishes, so the… Read more »
How many younger folks like Superman?
I a Superman nutter and don’t fit in that younger demographic Mint is trying to capture.
I AM HOBO NICKEL GROOT!
Ha ha ha Kaiser – 😉
I’m tired of all the dead space / void in medals. Coins fill that area up w/their value, etc. US Mint can do so much more w/medal designs occupying the dead space.
If the silver medal is $75 or less I’ll purchase, but not at $104 or even $90.