Anyone remember the snoopy cartoon? Peanuts comic strip is having its 60th anniversary and Taisei Coins celebrate it by producing a Peanuts 60th anniversary gold coin. Taisei coins, Japanese money commodity trader: minted a 50 New Zealand dollar gold coin, a large 10 New Zealand dollar silver coin and three two New Zealand coins designed after popular cartoon character Snoopy for the celebration of the 60th anniversary of its publication. The Peanuts anniversary celebrated on the last Peanuts comic strip was published the day after its creator died.
Photo by AFP: Taisei Coins employee showing Peanuts 60th anniversary coin.Peanuts is a syndicated daily and Sunday comic strip written and illustrated by Charles M. Schulz, which ran from October 2, 1950, to February 13, 2000 (the day after Schulz's death), continuing in reruns afterward. The strip is considered to be one of the most popular and influential in the history of the medium, with 17,897 strips published in all, making it "arguably the longest story ever told by one human being", according to Professor Robert Thompson of Syracuse University. At its peak, Peanuts ran in over 2,600 newspapers, with a readership of 355 million in 75 countries, and was translated into 21 languages. It helped to cement the four-panel gag strip as the standard in the United States, and together with its merchandise earned Schulz more than $1 billion. Reprints of the strip are still syndicated and run in many newspapers.
Peanuts had its origin in Li'l Folks, a weekly panel comic that appeared in Schulz's hometown paper, the St. Paul Pioneer Press, from 1947 to 1950. He first used the name Charlie Brown for a character there, although he applied the name in four gags to three different boys and one buried in sand. The series also had a dog that looked much like the early 1950s version of Snoopy. In 1948, Schulz sold a cartoon to the Saturday Evening Post; seventeen single-panel cartoons by Schulz would be published there. The first of these was of a boy who resembled Charlie Brown sitting with his feet on an ottoman.
The Peanuts characters have been featured on Hallmark Cards since 1960 and can be found adorning clothing, figurines, plush dolls, flags, balloons, posters, Christmas ornaments, and countless other bits of licensed merchandise.
Technical Specification for $50 Proof coins:
Denomination: $ 50
Weight: 15.55 grams
Diameter: 30 mm
Grade: .9999
Material: Gold
State: Proof
Mintage: 1000
Source: Taisei coins, Associated Press
