1997-98 Pinnacle Mint Collection Break

Hello all - during the mid-90s hockey coins showcasing your favorite players poorly inscribed faces replacing Queens, sailboats and dead Presidents were all the rage.  Pinnacle released a mint collection two years straight and if my memory serves me correctly McDonald's even released a Team Canada set during the Nagano Olympics.  But the concept faded away fairly quickly.

Another wax-junk break today from the 1997-98 Pinnacle Mint Collection series.  18 packs, 2 more than inside a hobby box (although the hobby boxes carry 2 coins per pack and a much better odds at hitting something); found all of these from a plastic bin at Toys r Us for a buck each.

So let's start with the commons; the set includes 30 cards and 30 coins, there are two commons, one die-cut card and one coin per pack.  There are 6 different coin variations, ranging from bronze to 24k gold solid coins.  Check out the entire break after the jump.



Wayne Gretzky #18
Brett Hull #23



Jaromir Jagr #22
Jarome Iginla #9



Saku Koivu #15
John Leclair #20



Paul Kariya #2
Sergei Fedorov #14



Patrick Roy #11
Curtis Joseph #24



Mark Messier #13
Pavel Bure #17

Jaroslav Svejkovsky #25
Vaclav Prospal #30

Martin Brodeur / Die-cut #16 - Brodeur was the only die-cut that I pulled that I didn't have a coin to insert inside.  Did I mention that the die-cut cards come one per pack?

Joe Thornton / Bronze Coin - This Joe Thornton coin was the only coin that I pulled that I didn't have a card for, common or die-cut.  Similar to a camera, the coins add an extra 20 pounds apparently as shown here in Thorntons case.

Brian Leetch / Silver Mint Team w/ Bronze Coin #19 - These Silver Mint Team cards can be found 1:23.  There's a couple differences from the common cards such as the silver foil around the cards edge and the circular unpunchable coin slot is also emblazed in silver.

Dominik Hasek w/ Silver Coin #8 - The odds for pulling a nickel-silver coin are 1:41 and 1960 for a solid silver coin.  I'm not sure which sort of silver coin this one would be to be honest.  I also received a Hasek die-cut in the same pack so it all worked out.  Really like having the card and the coin together.

Alexei Morozov / Minted Rookies w/ Silver Coin #27 - Here's a card and silver coin of Penguins (at the time) future superstar Morozov; as a Pittsburgh fan Morozov was one of my favorite young guns, he played seven seasons for the Penguins, totaling 451 games and 219 points.  Alexei still plays hockey for Ak Bars Kazan in the KHL.



Joe Sakic w/ Bronze Coin #12 - A pair of retired Avalanche players from the franchises hayday.

Peter Forsberg w/ Bronze Coin  #3



John Vanbiesbrouck w/ Bronze Coin #4
Keith Tkachuk w/ Bronze Coin #21



Eric Lindros w/ Bronze Coin #1 - At just 30 cards the set basically spotlights the top superstars during the mid/late 90s era.

Brendan Shanahan w/ Bronze Coin #6

Mats Sundin w/ Bronze Coin #10

Alyn McCauley / Minted Rookies w/ Bronze Coin #28 - Another one of my favorite rookies from that season; although as a kid I think I just liked him because his name seemed to roll off my tounge - here's another name I liked as a kid, Boyd Devereaux.

Sergei Samsonov / Minted Rookies w/ Bronze Coin #26 - I really liked Samsonov when he first broke into the league because of how fast he was on the ice.  Sergei was drafted 8th overall by the Bruins during the '97 draft and also won the Calder as the league's best rookie.  On a side note, apparently Samsonov's most played artist on his iPod is Linken Park - I don't know how people get this stuff.

Teemu Selanne / Minternational #4 - Excuse the massive cat hair strangling the card; these Minternational cards are inserted 1:47 packs.  Great looking card, love the silver foil in the background.