Halloween

Halloween-themed Silver Bullion from JM Bullion

Every bullion collection has a design theme of one type or another. Many sovereign bullion coin programs, for example, focus on national emblems and symbolism. Other collections may feature mythical creatures common in a particular culture or wild animals prominent on a continent. When it comes to private mints, the range of design themes expands exponentially. One of the more niche design concepts is seasonal. Halloween-themed silver is increasingly popular and offers fun, festive takes on the fall season and its many characters. JM Bullion carries fresh Halloween-themed silver each year ranging from rounds and bars to unique 3D pieces. You can learn more about our Halloween silver below.

Halloween Silver Rounds

The designs of silver rounds issued during the Halloween season can vary from one year to the next. Many of these designs offer seasonally-appropriate imagery of characters such as witches and broader themes, such as the Jack-o-Lantern. These designs tend to change with each new Halloween season in order to offer something distinctive and unique for each year. Examples of popular designs over time include:

• Jack-o-Lantern: Pumpkins and other gourds are a popular décor piece during the Halloween season, and are considered by many to be a broader element of fall. When a pumpkin has been carved as part of Halloween festivals and celebrations, it is referred to as a Jack-o-Lantern, a term that originated in 17^th-century England. Jack-o-Lanterns can be carved to look as creative or as simple as the designer wants, but most feature a smiling face with two triangular eyes and a triangle nose.
• Witches: Though not strictly associated with Halloween and its preceding fall festivals from Celtic cultures, witches have become a popular part of modern Halloween celebrations as a costumed character. Witches are often depicted with grotesque facial features, such as warts and crooked noses, as well as green skin. Other common depictions include the tall, striped socks, buckled high-heel shoes, and tall, pointed hats. Witches are said to move about by flying on brooms at night.

In most cases, Halloween silver rounds come with a specific design only on the obverse side. The private mints that produce these silver rounds often leave the reverse field of the round blank to allow for custom engravings to match the holiday season. You will, however, find inscriptions on this side of the weight, purity, and metal content (in most cases).

Halloween Silver Bars

In addition to silver rounds, you can also find Halloween-themed silver bars in production during the fall months. Like silver rounds, these products offer distinctive designs befitting the season. Also, like silver rounds, Halloween-themed silver bars often have new design features each year rather than repeating the same designs. This lends a sense of collectability to the images and is, in general, a good change of pace for any collection. While these designs rotate each year, you can expect to see common themes in designs that include the following:

• Seasonal greetings: Some bars offer a more festive twist on the typical Halloween design by straying away from the ghoulish toward text inscriptions with small details that add to the beauty of the bar. For example, a simple greeting of “Happy Halloween” can be accompanied by symbols and emblems such as a witch’s hat, a Jack-o-Lantern, or even ghosts.
• Headless figures: The Halloween season is, after all, a time for frights and scares. What would Halloween silver be without a few ghoulish designs? The Headless Horseman is one of the many frightening characters to appear in Halloween tales. While origins of headless riders as part of fall festivals date back as far as the Middle Ages in England, Scotland, and Ireland, Americans no doubt connect Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” with headless riders. In this folktale, a Hessian killed by an American cannonball at the Battle of White Plains during the Revolutionary War rises again on Halloween night to ride around in search of his head while carrying a Jack-o-Lantern in his hands.

Silver bars in Halloween collections also tend to have blank reverse fields. The central element is left blank to accommodate custom-engraving requests, but that does not mean certain inscriptions aren’t included. You are always likely to find a festive border element with inscriptions identifying the weight, purity, and metal content of an individual piece.

Seasonally-themed Silver Skulls

Another popular design piece you will find available during the Halloween season is the Sugar Skull. Also known as a Calavera, the Sugar Skull is closely associated with the Mexican cultural tradition of Die de Muertos or Dia de los Muertos. The Day of the Dead is part of a three-day celebration in Mexico that coincides with the Christian Allhallowtide season. This includes All Saints’ Eve, All Saints’ Day, and All Souls’ Day. The celebration is not one of mourning, but rather, is one of fond remembrance that sees Mexican families gather together to celebrate the lives of those who have gone before them.

A popular piece of the festival season is the Sugar Skull. The decorate skulls originated as a piece that was left as an offering on the altar of a dead family member’s tomb. The use of Calaveras dates back to the 1630s and is rooted in the Aztec, Mayan, and Toltec celebrations of the Day of the Dead. Today, Sugar Skulls have become popular treats for children during Day of the Dead celebrations.

Monarch Precious Metals is the leader in this space, creating hand-crafted 3D skulls with ornate details reflective of the cultural tradition of colorful skulls for the festive season. While the shape of the skulls from Monarch are often the same, there are some factors that change with each new issue of Day of the Dead Skulls from Monarch:

• Toning/colorization: Monarch adds toning and colorization to the Day of the Dead skulls to capture the original intent of the skulls in festival celebrations. This can result in colors of grey and black, rose gold, and a broader rainbow-colored finish to the skulls. However, no two batches of skulls ever come out exactly the same, meaning that you could receive various skulls with different toning and colorization when either buying multiples at once or shopping this range across various calendar years.
• Ornate details: Another factor that can change are the decorative, ornate details on the skulls. A silver skull in the Day of the Dead series is never just a human skull. Each one is decorated with beautiful details as would be done in the festival celebrations. Recent issues offer Marigold and Heart designs, capturing specific designs of different flowers or shapes throughout the design field.

Buying Halloween-themed Silver at JM Bullion

Halloween-themed silver arrives in the early fall and is only available through Halloween, or while supplies last. These distinctive pieces are a great option for any collector and make great gifts for the season. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask. JM Bullion customer service is available at 800-276-6508, online through our live chat, and via our email address. For questions about available payment methods, we invite you to visit our Payment FAQ and then contact us with any further inquiries.