Trekkies rejoice - Royal Mint releases new Star Trek coins

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the popular sci-fi franchise Star Trek, and to celebrate, the Royal Mint is boldly going where they've not gone before and releasing some themed coins to celebrate.

There are two new 50p designs to mark the milestone, and it'll be the first time the show features on British coins.

The first has the famous Vulcan salute (a hand sign used in greeting by the alien species) along side the phrase "Live long and prosper".

The second has lots of different spacecraft featured in the show, along with "Star Trek 60".

The coins are quite colourful, which the Royal Mint says is a nod to the bright outfits worn on the show, as more people started watching colour TV in the 1960s.

Tim Mulhall, head of fandom at The Royal Mint called them "a keepsake that's out of this world".

Ruth Henriquez, vice president of products and experiences, Paramount EMEA, said: "Star Trek has one of the most dedicated collector communities in the world, and these coins are a tribute to 60 years of the franchise."

Star Trek started off as a TV series in 1966, and was set a few hundred years in the future, in outer space.

It followed Captain Kirk, a half-human-half-vulcan called Spock, Lieutenant Nyota Uhura and many others who would travel across galaxies studying alien life and completing missions.

It was an action show, but showed a version of the future where humans and aliens often worked together peacefully.

It was rebooted as a film in 1979, and over the years has inspired countless comics, books, toys and more.