Souvenir Nova | Caged Steel (Minimal Wear)

Skin overview

The skin pairs a ribbed blue-grey pump with a black body covered in hexagonal cells and fine metallic speckle. At Minimal Wear the difference from a fresh copy is hard to spot, since the matte finish and busy flake hide small scuffs well. For most players this grade gives the same dark, mesh-like look at a lower entry point.

Item type: shotgun. Industrial Grade is the second tier from the bottom: common skins from drops and collections.

Anodized Multicolored: several colours in the metal coating; it wears little, the colours only dull with use.

Appearance in Minimal Wear

The barrel and magazine tube are near-black with a fine silver metal flake speckle. The pump forend is a blue-grey ribbed piece that stands out as the lightest part of the weapon.

Small scuffs may appear on the receiver edges and the tips of the forend ribs. They are mostly lost in the metal flake and matte texture. At normal distance the weapon looks the same as a Factory New copy, and the stock pattern remains fully clean.

Minimal Wear wear: float 0.07–0.15

The float of Souvenir Nova | Caged Steel ranges from 0 to 0.2; the Minimal Wear quality covers 0.07–0.15 — 40% of this skin’s scale. The lower the float within the range, the cleaner the surface looks and the higher a copy is usually priced.

Where the skin comes from: collection and case

Souvenir Nova | Caged Steel belongs to The Bank Collection, which holds 16 skins. It does not drop from a case: the collection has none — such skins come from operation drops, souvenir packages or the market.

Price by quality

Taking Minimal Wear as the baseline:

• Factory New — 1.6× dearer
• Field-Tested — 5% cheaper

Based on the cheapest SkinOut.gg listing of each quality, otherwise on the market reference.

Among 5 skins of the Nova in the Industrial Grade grade and this quality, this skin is the dearest.

Souvenir version

This is the Souvenir version: such copies dropped to tournament viewers in souvenir packages; the team stickers and signatures on them cannot be removed or chosen. Souvenir items never carry StatTrak™. There is also the regular version without tournament stickers.

Which stickers suit it

Black, grey, silver and holographic stickers blend with the dark hex finish for a tidy craft. A single sticker in a cold blue tone matches the forend, while one bright accent on the receiver gives contrast.

What to check before buying

• Check where the float sits within the wear grade, since the range of this skin is short and grades sit close together.
• Look at the receiver edges and forend ribs, which show wear first.
• Check whether the copy is a Souvenir and what stickers are already applied.
• See if there is a name tag and whether it fits the look you want.

Who should buy Minimal Wear

• Players who want a near-new look for less.
• Those who play with the Nova and do not inspect it up close.
• Conclusion: the best balance of look and cost.