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 coin is part of the Ancient Greece series and features a Crab, as it appeared on the coinage of Akragas.
Ancient cities chose symbols for their coinage that represented the founding mythology, a pun on the city’s name, a characteristic feature of the economy or the city’s devotion to a particular deity.
For the wealthy city of Akragas on Sicily this was the crab. Some believe the animal associates with Poseidon. Others suggest a connection to the Greek river-god Akragas. |