CIT’s Iron Maiden Series: Pop Culture Meets Minting Technology

Iron Maiden’s Album Covers: Part of Modern Pop Culture

Let us begin with the album covers of Iron Maiden, which played a decisive role in this process. From the very beginning it was decided not to go for a main-stream approach – no picture of the smiling musicians or anything like that. Instead, the group looked for an artist who could design creative visuals for their album covers. British artist Derek Riggs, who was still very young at the time, was on their shortlist. The group discovered a drawing in his portfolio that resounded with them. Electric Matthew got some hair and became Eddie, or rather Eddie the Head, the group’s mascot. Today, Eddie is a cult figure. He is part of Iron Maiden’s stage performance, has his own video game and is the namesake of the group’s Boeing, which they use to transport the crew, stage decorations and technical equipment.

Most importantly, Eddie is featured on every Iron Maiden album cover – always in a new and fitting incarnation.

Cook Islands. 5 Dollars 2022 The Number of the Beast. 1 oz. Silver .999. Mintage: 1982. Obsidian Black.

The Design – Smartminting®, Color and Clever Details

An album cover is rectangular, two-dimensional and achieves its effect primarily through color. A coin, on the other hand, is usually circular in shape, and while it can use a variety of finishes and colors, it is the relief that brings it to life. The fact that turning an album cover into a coin is a highly sophisticated task is illustrated by many cheap-looking merchandise products. CIT’s products, however, are in a class of their own. They do an ingenious job of transforming the design into a coin, making it look even more convincing. And because every design requires a different technique to turn it into a numismatic issue, no two coins in the Iron Maiden series are alike.

Cook Islands. 10 Dollars 2022 Senjutsu. 2 oz. Silver .999. Mintage: 999. Proof.

Take the Senjutsu coin released in 2022 as an example. While the samurai-clad mascot Eddie is depicted against a simple black background on the album cover, CIT reduced the cover to its main motif, presenting it against a completely different background. Using state-of-the-art smartminting® technology, Eddie protrudes the edge, which is minted in Proof quality. The subtle color application contrasts with the band name, which is also minted in Proof quality.

Cook Islands. 5 Dollars 2022 Fear of the Dark. 1 oz. Silver .999. Mintage: 1982. Obsidian Black.

For this cover, the designers decided to stay true to their source material. The Fear of the Dark album cover is reminiscent of a scene from a graphic novel. The effect of the depiction is created by presenting a hand-drawn motif against an eerie backdrop. Since smartminting® offered no additional effect, it was decided to reproduce the original cover on the coin, placing it within an Obsidian Black area to enhance the effect of the drawing.

Cook Islands. 10 Dollars 2023 Piece of Mind. 2 oz. Silver .999. Mintage: 999. Proof.

A change in color and a focus on what is most important – this is how CIT translated the Piece of Mind album cover into a coin, which shows Eddie with opened skull, chained up in a padded cell. On the coin, smartminting® makes the three-dimensional mascot Eddie seem to leap at the observer while the clearly outlined padded cell of the cover fades into the background. Reduced to a section of the album cover, Eddie stands out against a Proof background that is very delicately colored in black and white.

A nice detail: the titles on the album can be read in micro minting on the rim.

Cook Islands. 5 Dollars 2024 Powerslave. 0.5 g. Gold .9999. Mintage: 15,000.

CIT took a completely different approach for Powerslave. The complex album cover, which combined an Egyptian-like temple façade with a pyramid, was reduced to the dominating mask of Pharaoh Eddie.

Cook Islands 1 Dollar 2024 Book of Souls. Silver .999. Mintage: 5,000.

CIT targeted a different group of customers with its 2024 Iron Maiden silver banknote dedicated to the Book of Souls. Since the technical possibilities regarding banknote design and printed album covers are very similar, the motif was transferred very accurately.