Ancient Mew is one of the most unique cards you can own. Ironically, due to its unusual design, it was banned from use in any Pokémon deck—it’s nearly impossible to read! Because of this unique language, both English and French versions of Ancient Mew are printed exactly the same. However, contrary to what you might think, not all Ancient Mews are identical. There are actually five different versions. The easiest way to distinguish them is by looking at a combination of their copyright dates and holofoil patterns.

• Japanese Ancient Mew I (Nintedo Error) will have a speckle holofoil pattern and a copyright date of ©1995, 1996, 1998 Nintedo/Creatures inc./GAMEFREAK inc.
• Japanese Ancient Mew I (Nintendo Corrected) will have a speckle holofoilpattern and a copyright date of ©1995, 1996, 1998, Nintendo/Creatures inc./GAMEFREAK inc.
• Japanese Ancient Mew II will have a cosmic holofoil pattern and the copyright information will read ©1995, 1996, 1998, Nintendo/Creatures inc./GAMEFREAK inc.
• International Print Ancient Mews will have a cosmic holofoil pattern and the copyright information will read ©1995, 96, 98, 99 Nintendo, Creatures, GAMEFREAK. © 1999-2000 Wizards.
• The Japanese 2019 Ancient Mew reprint will have a speckle holofoil pattern and the copyright date reads ©2019 Pokémon/Nintendo/Creatures/GAME FREAK.

The rest of this guide will include visual comparisons highlighting the differences between each version of the card, along with useful information about the release details for each one.

Holofoil Patterns

For Ancient Mew cards, there are two types of holofoil patterns: the speckle pattern and the cosmic holofoil pattern.

The speckle holofoil features a dense pattern with no orbs or swirls. This pattern is found exclusively on the Ancient Mew I card, both in the corrected and error versions, as well as on the 2019 reprint.

The cosmic holofoil pattern is widely used in Pokémon cards, first introduced in Base Set II and used through the Call of Legends set. This pattern features a few orbs and swirl designs, distinguishing it from the speckle pattern. The Ancient Mew II and all international print Ancient Mew cards use this holofoil style, although it’s important to note that the cosmic holofoil pattern varies slightly between these two versions.

Ancient Mew I – Nintedo Error and Corrected

The first Ancient Mew released was Ancient Mew I. However, there was a printing error where the copyright date included a typo—Nintendo was misspelled as “Nintedo.” This error wasn’t corrected immediately, making the corrected version of the card significantly rarer than the error version.

Both the error and corrected versions share the same speckle holofoil pattern. The only way to differentiate between the two is by checking the copyright information, where the error is present.

Ancient Mew II

The main difference between an Ancient Mew I and an Ancient Mew II is the holofoil pattern. The transition from the speckle pattern to the cosmic holofoil pattern is the key way to distinguish an Ancient Mew I corrected version from an Ancient Mew II. Of course, the error version of Ancient Mew I can also be identified by its incorrect copyright information.

International Ancient Mew

The international Ancient Mew is the first release outside of Japan, and all versions are identical. This means that the French version is the same as the U.S. version, as well as every other internationally released Ancient Mew.

There are a few visual differences between the international Ancient Mew and the Ancient Mew II. While both use what’s considered cosmic holofoil patterns, there are subtle differences between them, which can be hard to describe—but I’ve attached images of both cards below. Additionally, their borders vary, with the Ancient Mew II having a thinner border. However, the most reliable way to distinguish them is by their copyright dates.

2019 Ancient Mew Reprint

Finally, there’s the 2019 Ancient Mew reprint, which was designed to closely resemble the original Ancient Mew I. Visually, it achieves this almost perfectly, and the only way to tell the difference between the two is by checking the copyright date.

Ancient Mew Releases

All of the Japanese Ancient Mew cards were released exclusively through promotional pamphlets in Japan. In contrast, the international release was distributed at promotional events held at participating theaters.

Ancient Mew I and Ancient Mew II

The Ancient Mew I (both error and corrected) and Ancient Mew II were first released on July 17th, 1999, inside a pamphlet commemorating the theatrical run of Pokémon The Movie 2000: The Power of One. The Ancient Mew card was included on the second page of the pamphlet. However, it’s impossible to know which version of Ancient Mew you received without examining the card itself inside the pamphlet. Below are images of the complete pamphlet with an Ancient Mew II insert.

International Ancient Mew

International Ancient Mew cards were given away in a cellophane packet with a Pokemon Leauge teaser card for the first week of the theatrical release of Pokemon: The Movie 2000:The Power Of One, which was July 21st-July 28th, 2000 for America.

The Pokemon Leauge teaser card is the only way of telling where the card was distributed. For example, below is an image of the US, UK, and French teaser cards. The Ancient Mew cards inside the cellophane wrap are all the same.

There are some differences in the teaser cards. For example, in Australia they used a Gameboy Color Insert instead of the standard Ancient Mew teaser card insert.

You can also find some inserts with text changes as well as different logos variants.

2019 Ancient Mew Reprint

Starting on July 12, 2019, participating cinemas in Japan were selling another movie pamphlet, this time for the movie Mewtwo Strikes Back – Evolution. On the second page, just like for the Ancient Mew I and II, was an Ancient Mew reprint.

Once again, I’ve provided images of the pamphlet below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Non-TCG Meiji Ancient Mew

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Meiji Ancient Mew was not produced for the Pokémon Trading Card Game; instead, it was created by the chocolate company Meiji. Released exclusively in Japan in 1998, it was sold alongside Meiji’s chocolate products. This version of Ancient Mew is easy to distinguish from the others based on its visual differences alone.

Thank You

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