Stamps & Coins

Several international mints and postal services had licensing rights to produce coins and stamps. Unless otherwise marked, these are legal tender.

Canada Canadian Royal Mint Reel-Coinz series Packed in jewelcases, then carded on blisterpacks, each included a sticker sheet. There was a version for each movie.
Fan-Made These are really neat & unusual. You often see coin machines that do this in tourist areas, but  people do this as a hobby, too. There's a name for it, but I don't know what it is. Makers have to carve a mold, and then they use a heavy weighted press to mash pennies or nickels. I think they do quite a bit of trading amongst themselves, since the end product is inexpensive, costing mostly time & effort. These particular coins were made by a really nice guy who sent these to me the day before he left for Iraq. I sincerely hope he came home none the worse. This is a set of mashed pennies, and of nickels, too.
Fan Made I don't know what to make of these. At first I thought they were an annoying way for someone to make a few bucks. But now I think they are a labor of love, by folks who have a hobby similar to the mashed pennies (above). There is a humongous series of these, with coinage ranging from Shire to Mordor. At one point, I had heard either New Line or the Tolkien Estate had gone after some of the people selling them on Ebay (by way of the VERO rules), because they vanished, but they do show up again occasionally now. There are versions in nickel, coin silver, and I even have a tiny one in gold. Had intended to make it into a necklace, until I realize just how tiny it was!!!! The larger coins, btw, made great markers for the Decipher game. Believe it or not, I felt obligated to learn the game, and my daughter and I would make weekly treks to the local card store, where I stuck out like a sore thumb amongst the Pokemon kids , and the GA Tech crowd that enjoyed the LOTR Decipher game. I ended up giving one of my coins to the local Rider of Rohan, who put up with a LOT of stupid questions from me. Make no mistake, the Decipher game is challenging.
Fan Made Fake British Pound from a really annoying set of same. I don't know why these irritate me so bad, but they do. I can't stand them.
France Monnaie de Paris Heavy solid bronze paperweight medallion from a small series made by a French Mint. I don't know if MdP is the French mint or not. I think it is, but they also have a tres chic shop in Paris selling all sorts of neat licensed coins and such. If you've ever been to France and bought one of those wonderful coins out of the machines at tourist sites, they also do those. MdP also made a set of One Rings out of precious metals. I have the 18K version.
France New Line Cinema Trilogy Tuesday Passport and Coin This is what the French got, versus us getting the film frame. These are highly sought after by French collectors, and usually fetch around $80 US.
Isle of Man Manx Post, home of John Rhys-Davies, produced a licensed series of coins and stamps. The coins cost an arm and a leg, so sadly, I never got any. But I did get a set of the postcards. Here is some of the ad material for the series, as well as samples of the postcards.
Kyrgyzstan   Yeah, sue me. I probably spelt that wrong.   Unauthorized set of stamps I don't know if these were actually usable there. I got a long lecture from an Ebay stamp collector about these.
Mardis Gras Coins USA There are actually two of these. Sean Astin and Elijah Wood were the Guest of Honor in consecutive years at the New Orleans Mardis Gras celebrations. This is the custom coin that was minted for Elijah to throw from the Bacchus float. I'll have to hunt down my Astin coin to add it. Most the coins that survive are in horrible condition, heavily oxidized and scratched up. There is also a Bacchus "One Ring" that Elijah threw from the float. Those are particularly rare.
New Zealand New Zealand Post Sample images from the wonderful NZ Post stamp series. I've included some of the ad material here, including brochures and even the rare poster.
New Zealand New Zealand Post Coin Series These are legal tender in NZ, if you are fool enough to spend them! These were just a beautiful series. The gatefold packaging was beautiful, the coins well done. You can certainly see the national pride.
Republic of Congo bootleg stamp sheet
Taiwan Go-Licensing This is a rare and little known licensed stamp package from Taiwan. Go-Licensing held an extensive license in Taiwan for everything from bookmarks to disposable cameras to  tin banks to these stamps.  I think their items rank amongst some of the best of the LOTR material.
UK Royal Mail Royal Mail in England had a huge licensing agreement with New Line. They heavily promoted a £1 Million (Pound, appx $1.5 million US) lotto-type contest, issuing a series of 12  colorful contest "pop-open" cards. Complete sets of the cards are rare. This is a sampling of the Royal Mail ad material, including magazine and newspaper ads, brochures, and even a particularly nice promo postcard. Oddly enough, while the stamp packet included a LOTR backer, none of the stamps actually had LOTR images on them.