With its vault, imposing security doors and staff in lab coats making gold coins, NZ Mint looks straight out of the movies. Now, it’s making collectibles based on the superheroes and pop culture figures seen on the big screen.
In the mint, staff at the vault bring out a tray. Included is a 1kg troy ounce gold bar, 99.99% pure.
When you pick it up and hold it, you see why the metal has mesmerised people over the years. From the hulking mine dumps of Johannesburg to Conquistador quests for El Dorado, gold has built cities and empires and driven some people crazy.
The bars are dense, shinier in real life than they usually seem in photos, and you might start weighing up how to do a runner with one and sell it for the equivalent of a home deposit. Don’t bother - there are cameras aplenty and high security at NZ Mint.
The private company has achieved what many New Zealand businesses struggle to do, winning fans and customers overseas and turning ideas into foreign currency.
Its latest chapter with the Agoro collectibles follows a relentless campaign to win over Disney. Once the Kiwi company earned Disney’s trust, doors opened and now Marvel, Major League Baseball, the UFC and others have endorsed the mint and partnered with it.
The Agoro series launched this week. NZ Mint chief executive Vedran Babic said wholesalers and retailers in the US had already made big orders for the limited-edition collectibles.
“It’s a longstanding traditional business that’s now undergoing a transition to collectibles.”
Agoro combined old technology with intricate designs and laser printing, giving people the chance to make what Babic called “heart purchases” based on their favourite characters and sports stars.
Some of those who buy the new Agoro pieces might end up selling them online for a profit to other collectors. But the goods have an intrinsic value for their precious metal components too.
Babic and colleagues took the Herald on a tour of the Auckland building, including the presses - where gold is turned into coins.
He said the pandemic, wars in Ukraine and Gaza, and the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank drew more people lately to gold as a safe investment.
The gold price has risen from less than US$1600 in early 2020 to US$2437.39 ($4097.50) per ounce this week. And Federal Reserve interest rates cuts coupled with geopolitical risk could push prices to up to US$2700 an ounce, a market strategist told Reuters.
Babic said more people than before were eager to invest in gold and other bullion - silver, palladium, and platinum.
The upshot? That bar of gold weighing just 1kg is worth more than NZ$130,000.
The place gets audited too - PwC comes in at times and randomly checks the drawers in a vault that looks like a sleeker version of Storage King.
NZ Mint will not store your old photo albums, trinkets from two relationships ago, or the USB card from your early 2000s camera.
It stores bullion, so you can bring your gold or silver here and each drawer has a number linked to a specific user.
“There are drawers full of gold that have probably got $5 million worth,” Babic said.
NZ Mint also serves customers at a counter resembling what you’d see at your local bank. Machines test the purity of metal.
“People can come and buy bullion but also sell bullion. You’re buying a tangible investment,” Babic says.
The mint’s other products, including the Agoro series, often have intricate packaging where attention to detail is a priority.
“The bigger the canvas, the more elaborate the design can be,” Babic said.
For that reason, silver is a big component of the Agoro series. The characters portrayed in Agoro include real-life stars such as Israel Adesanya, thanks to the UFC endorsement. Each item is numbered and certified, assuring authenticity.
NZ Mint’s revenue exceeds $250m. It also sells coins and smaller products, including a gram of gold about the size of a SIM card.
When people sell gold coins or bars to NZ Mint, it can melt the gold down and produce new coins. It’s infinitely recyclable - an old coin can be turned into a new bar, the shavings and offcuts get processed too, the journey continues.
James Scott helps make those coins and the process combines precision with some big, loud machines. Gold melts at about 1060C on a crucible. Impurities or alien objects stick to a treated chemical which keeps them away.
A new bar of gold is then dipped into a water bath, and because gold is such a good conductor of heat, it cools down in seconds, Scott said. Scraps are in a tray - inhale deeply and you might get a few dollars’ worth up your nostril.
Babic said NZ Mint was one of the first in the world to adopt the “four nines” standard of 99.99% purity.
There’s a pulsing sound in the background as hydraulic valves in a press tick away.
Bars are made and the bullion world’s version of a hole punch makes the discs which are then polished in a tub or magnetic tumbler with stainless steel pins and a burnishing soap.
Gold can be in today, out tomorrow. Because NZ Mint has the tools to make coins, it doesn’t have to keep lots of stock. Somebody brings gold in, and it can be turned around quickly. If the company does want big quantities of gold, it can ask Perth Mint or ABC Bullion in Australia.
After Scott hands us a disc, our thumbprints are still on the coin after it’s been pressed. It’s tempting to think how you might make specialised coins for an occasion but the main barrier to getting a one-off coin for your loved one is the cost of the die, Babic said.
The die imprints the design of whatever will be on the coin. NZ Mint does not have the rights to use the effigy of King Charles as the Reserve Bank does on coins. But it uses Niue’s effigy, and Babic says this is mutually beneficial for the mint and for Niue.
The building has a mail room where packages are ready. Some of the customers are in Orlando, Cape Town, multiple California locations, Alabama, and Singapore’s Telok Blangah.
“People will pay a higher premium for the licenced collectible because it’s a limited edition,” Babic said. “A lot of the customers are in the US and heading on to an election, creating a bit of uncertainty.”
Babic was excited about Agoro’s prospects and proud of the company driving innovation and making a name for itself overseas.
“We saw a opportunity to set the collectibles business free from the bullion trading business.”
Now he hopes the new project will make a lot of people happy, and NZ Mint better known around the world.
John Weekes, online business editor, has covered rounds including consumer affairs for the Herald on Sunday.
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