The Cook Islands, a sovereign state in free association with New Zealand, uses two official legal tender currencies. The New Zealand Dollar circulates in parallel with the local Cook Islands Dollar; at the same time, the government also authorises many legal tender coins in the Cook Islands Dollar currency for collector's purposes. Many of them are in standard sizes, including the half gram (0.5 g) of gold mini-coin format - such as this coin.
This ingot-shaped coin is one of a series of 12 coin mini-bars featuring characters and themes from the Harry Potter series of books and films, and features Harry's pet owl Hedwig.
"Hedwig is Harry Potter's pet snowy owl, given to him by Rubeus Hagrid on his 11th birthday. Throughout her life, Hedwig fulfilled the traditional owl's function of delivering mail for Harry, but was also a loyal and affectionate companion." |