The Expert Figur

"The Expert"
Fine Art Porcelain Figurine
by Carl Barks

This is Another Rainbow’s seventh figurine in fine porcelain,
but none has prompted us to go to such lengths
– literally, that “extra mile” to bring the touches to it we wanted, as has The Expert.
Based on Carl Barks’ oil painting and lithograph of the same image,
and working from original Barks sketches showing Scrooge from different views,
the “experts” at world-renowned Connoisseur of Malvern in England sculpted our miserduck, coin and magnifying glass in hand.

Whoops. There came problem number one. A magnifying glass? In Porcelain?
Obviously, Uncle Scrooge couldn’t be holding anything but a real one, so a custom glass was made. Next!

What about the coin he was holding?
It couldn’t be just representational, or roughly faked: it had to be real…minted in Duckburg (where else?).
We put the Old Duck Man himself on the job, and – meticulous in his research as always
– Barks designed a ‘coin for Scrooge to be examining,” he explained.
“A version of [the] U.S. 1908 double eagle.”

What about the coin itself?
Should it be gold plated? Snort!
Not good enough for McDuck! Not good enough for Another Rainbow.
Had to be solid, pure 24-karat.
Too soft for a circulating coin, but Uncle Scrooge McDuck would be holding on to it – forever –
and he would have no intention of letting it slip from his fingers or escape from his money bin. Fine. Anything else?

Yes…there would be one other thing! Trying to think like a multi-billionaire duck, we asked ourselves should the gold itself have a provenance?
All gold coins and medallions we know of are struck from pots where all gold from everywhere
is anonymously pooled together and melted into a homogeneous entity.
No character. Would Scrooge approve: would The Expert Himself want that?
Probably not. So…we contacted our friends at the Klondyke Centennial Society in Dawson City
and they arranged to go to the goldfields where Scrooge found his goose-egg nugget in 1897 and get real Klondike gold for our coins!
A Certification of Origin attesting to the purchase, melting and firing of these wondrous coins
comes with the Certificate of Authenticity accompanying every figuring purchased in our extremely limited edition of The Expert.
Each piece comes with Barks’ signature fired in gold and numbered.
In addition to 3 Artist's Proofs, only 25 Regular Edition will ever be manufactured for sale.