And so… another scrap in ‘The Coin Arena’! And this time it could end with sludge everywhere as our two contenders are both snowmen.
First up is the Isle of Man ‘Snowman’. He first made an appearance in 2003. Since then, he has shown up on two other occasions – 2008 (exactly the same design as in 2003) and 2008 where he breezed in with his pet ‘Snowdog’.
On an artistic level, both of these pictures are very nice, particularly the 2003/2008 one/s. On a scarcity level they also rank very highly indeed. Unfortunately, because the Isle of Man treasury are so very Secret Squirrel about mintage figures, we are not sure how rare any of these are. After all, we are fully aware that disclosing how many coins were produced with a certain picture would cause some very serious security concerns (yes, they actually said this at one point LOL). Consequently, collectors can expect to pay big dollar for these releases…..
Our other ‘Snowman’ is from the UK. He was a late starter (as well as being a blatant copycat) and didn’t appear on his first coin until 2018. Since then, it has become a modern Christmas tradition at Royal Mint to release a coin with him on (how very ever so jolly original even though they are a decade behind…. lol). As a result, there have been four snowman releases to date. Although this means he has starred in twice as many pictures as his Isle of Man nemesis, it doesn’t mean all UK ‘Snowman’ coins are so good. The 2018 one was nice, the 2019 one was like proper pants (he looked more like a standing stone or an icy phallic sculpture). The 2020 one was okay…. but kind of insensitive and a bit inappropriate in our (at the time) Covid-ridden climate, while the 2021 coin was arguably the nicest one to date.
Hmmmm. This is going to be a tough match to decide on…..
The Isle of Man ‘Snowman’ is clearly the original, but we have to weigh up the picture quality for both. Even with the weaker designs out of the equation, there are still two very good UK releases with the wintery doppelganger on them. So…. for the first time thus far in ‘The Coin Arena’ I am going to say this one is a tie. But could there be a rematch at some point? Well, we will see how many more UK ‘Snowman’ coins are squeezed out during the RM milking of the franchise…. and whether the Isle of Man decide to bring out another and surprise everyone!
© Article and images (except where stated) copyright Mik Smith 2022
