The Vulcan salute has beamed down somewhere Gene Roddenberry never imagined: onto a 50p struck in Wales.
The Royal Mint has unveiled two collectable 50p coins marking 60 years of Star Trek, the first time the franchise has appeared on a UK 50p.
The first coin went on sale at 9am on Thursday, carrying the famous split-fingered greeting alongside the words Live Long & Prosper. Prices start at £19.95 at royalmint.com.
A second design lands in November, packing four craft from across the generations onto one seven-sided canvas: the USS Enterprise NCC-1701, its successor the Enterprise NCC-1701-D, the USS Voyager and a Klingon Bird of Prey.
Colour versions swirl with blue and purple nebulas, and the Mint says the choice nods to the show’s own place in television history.
When Star Trek first aired in 1966, the crew’s vivid uniforms were deliberately designed to stand out on the colour sets just arriving in living rooms. The Mint says the coins are built to do the same today.
Tim Mulhall, whose job title at the Mint really is Head of Fandom, could not resist the obvious. “It’s a privilege for The Royal Mint to boldly go, celebrating 60 years of Star Trek with a keepsake that’s out of this world,” he said.
“Both collectable 50p coins are designed for fans who’ve grown up with the franchise and want a piece of that history to treasure. It’s a collectable built to live long and prosper in any collection.”
The Mint knows the market is there. Its first sci-fi coin series, launched in 2023, saw close to 800,000 coins land in collections across 60 countries, the company says.
Paramount’s Ruth Henriquez said Star Trek has one of the most dedicated collector communities in the world, calling the coins “a tribute to 60 years of the franchise” created exclusively for the anniversary.
The numbers behind the fandom are suitably astronomical. Since the first episode aired in September 1966, the franchise has grown to 12 series, more than 950 episodes and 14 films taking over $2bn at the box office.
The Mint adds that 413,000 people are currently learning Klingon on Duolingo, and that eight asteroids and the first space orbiter carry names in the franchise’s honour.
The coins are the latest pop culture cargo from the Llantrisant works, which has been striking Britain’s coins in south Wales since 1968.
Swansea has felt the Mint’s pull before. WWII veterans Ron Horsey and Richard Pelzer travelled from the city to strike the first VE Day 50ps last year. Silver recovered from Singleton Hospital’s old X-rays is also on its way to Llantrisant, potentially returning to Wales as jewellery.
Both designs can be secured through the Mint’s website, with the starship coin to follow in November. Sixty years on, resistance among collectors is expected to be futile.
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