Tiny Pacific Island Mints Legal Star Wars Coins

Niue may be a small island nation in the middle pacific, but collectors around the world are lining up for the country’s upcoming Star Wars coins depicting Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader and Princess Leia, amongst other characters. And get this: the coins have boxes with sound effects, like a jet taking off for the Millennium Falcon coin.

Only Niue residents can use the coins as non-circulating legal tender, but buying a $2 drink with a Star Wars coin worth $100 wouldn’t really make sense. About 7,500 coins will be minted in New Zealand, and each coin has 28 grams of silver, and the image Queen Elizabeth II.

This isn’t the first time that Niue has made news, either. In 2008 it was the second most spam relaying country in the world, and in 2003, became the world’s first Wi-Fi nation when its 1,500-ish population were all given free access to the Internet. [Stuff NZ]

Coin image courtesy of NZ Mint via Darth Ambiguous]