Japan 2005 Doraemon Musical Mint Set -- Coin News -- Panda America Online Catalog

Doraemon is one of Japan's most popular and well-loved comic book heroes, and now perhaps one of the most recognized faces in all of Japan. Doraemon’s appearance on a colorful, musical coin holder containing the official 2005 Japanese Mint Set is expected to result in a quick sellout of the limited edition of 200,000 sets.

Place your mouse over this picture to play Doraemon tune

These are available for $49 per Mint Set from the official North American distributor for the Japan Mint, PandaAmerica. Credit card orders can be placed by calling (800) 472-6327, emailing info@pandaamerica.com, or on the web at www.pandaamerica.com/Doraemon . Add $5.50 per order for shipping and insurance within the USA. And California residents add 8.25% sales tax.

The 2005 mint set contains six coins: 500, 100, 50, 10, 5, and 1 Yen plus a specially produced medal depicting Doraemon and inscribed with “2005” and “35th Anniversary” in Japanese.

The story, by Hiroshi Fujimoto, first appeared 35 years ago. Nobi Nobita (Nobita being the first name) is a fourth-grade boy who wears glasses and lives in a subsection of Tokyo. One day, a strange being pops up in his desk drawer --- a round, blue cat-style robot (minus ears), who fails to introduce himself and instead eats Nobita's afternoon snack and then goes back into the drawer. The matter is eventually straightened out and explained. Nobita's great-great-grandson (or something like that) lives in the 22nd Century --- except, thanks to Nobita's mistakes, the entire family is living in poverty. To rectify this, Nobita's descendent is sending his robot Doraemon (not a very high-quality robot) back to the past, to help prevent Nobita from making mistakes. Of course, this is a difficult task, since Nobita is the weakest and least intelligent child in his class. And initially, Doraemon isn't the smartest of robots, either. He does, however, have a 4-dimensional pocket on his front, which contains all manner of cool gadgets from the 22nd Century, and it is with these toys that Doraemon will try to save Nobita from a future of poverty and failure.

With this premise, Doraemon and Nobita go on to become one of Japan's most famous duos. Nobita, as class weakling and dunce, needs lots of rescuing, and Doraemon is obliged to give him the right gadget to fix his situation.