Coins for a New Audience from Singapore

Karz actually started out as a designer himself. He was commissioned to design a coin. One coin turned into five, five turned into many, and the designer himself became a company founder. Ever since, he has been designing and selling coins to an international community with his company Spectres.

According to Spectres, they have designed more than 250 coins by now and sold over 100,000 specimens worldwide. Since 2023 the company is a registered and regulated Precious Metals Dealer under Singapore’s Ministry of Law, which is a requirement for companies wanting to sell precious metals in Singapore. This makes Spectres one of the many new players in the coin market that aim to take contemporary numismatics into the future.

Houdini, Holy Lance, Bulletproof Vest and Jukebox 

Those who visit Spectres’ website will find themselves immersed in international popular culture. The company has a flair for emotionally-charged motifs. This becomes evident when looking at the coins that are currently available: Hannibal, Cleopatra, Zhu Rong as the god of fire, Thunderbird, Houdini, the Holy Lance, and – not to forget – his latest products: Jukebox and Bulletproof Vest, all in high relief and of utmost technical precision.

Karz recounts: “I wanted to create the coins that I like to buy myself. I am fascinated by certain topics, and many of these topics are not as present in numismatics as they could be. State-of-the-art minting technology gives us the opportunity to create small works of art with an enormous amount of detail – and these are the very works of art that I want to create with my company. I started as a designer. Today, I am an entrepreneur managing all aspects of the business, from product creation to distribution. I still can immediately tell what makes a great coin.”

When asked to elaborate on what makes a great coin, Karz replies: “The emotions that a coin evokes. That’s why a coin that one collector really likes may not appeal to another collector at all. We focus on specific themes and designs and ensure that all our products align with this focus, our brand identity. We are proud to be an official mint partner for Samoa and Fiji, authorized to design, produce, and distribute unique legal tender coins.”

Popular Themes with Incredible Detail

The coins published by Spectres are bursting to the seams with detail. Those who purchase such a coin will get lost in it for a long time, discovering new details over and over again. Let us take one of Karz’s favorite creations as an example. Hannibal was the first coin he created after starting his own company. Karz explains: “I really like Hannibal. He has a great story. I am fascinated by his innovative mind that surprised the Romans. The Romans thought they were dominating the world at the time! And then came Hannibal, showing them how fragile their power was. I looked for coins with the image of Hannibal. But I found nothing that satisfied me. So I decided to create a coin myself.”

Spectres’ one-eyed Hannibal is muscular, every inch a warrior in his armor with elephant heads on the breastplates. A panther brooch holds together his leopard cloak. Two elephants, two horses and a total of twelve Carthaginian mercenaries are depicted on this two-ounce silver coin.

Spectres’ coin designs are reminiscent of contemporary cinema blockbusters. Their coins capture the central moment of a story that makes you want to dream on. A good example is the issue dedicated to Zhu Rong, the god of fire. You do not need to know much about Chinese mythology to understand that the depiction captures the exciting moment just before the outbreak of a cosmic battle. The large bird and the small god in a human body are about to collide. The tamed power of the fire god, fearlessly hurling himself at his much larger opponent any second now, is palpable on this small surface.

World Culture

Spectres’ offer is a perfect reflection of our globalized world culture. The designs by Karz and his team illustrate the stories that fascinate people all over the world. Where these stories come from becomes irrelevant. Just like the jukebox, which conquered the world from the United States and soon played the latest hits in bars around the globe, coins by Spectres are not intended for the population of a single country, but for a young international audience that collects coins in a new way. It is not the completeness of a collection that counts, but how much fun you have with a coin.

A Little Ghost

If you want to know if a coin is by Spectres, all you have to do is look for the little hidden ghost, the unmistakable logo that indicates the intellectual origin of the design.

By the way, Spectres does not have a shop but sells exclusively online. International buyers will be pleased to know that shipping is free.