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.
The Mint says about this coin:
Pegasus, or Pegasos as he was called by the Greeks, was a winged horse, born from the liaison of the sea-god Poseidon and the beautiful Medusa. It is one of the most recognised creatures in Greek mythology. The liaison made the goddess Athena angry, and she cursed Medusa to be ugly and deadly. When she was killed, Pegasus sprang from her neck. Thus the flying horse can be used as a metaphor for the soul's immortality. In modern times it has been regarded as a symbol of poetic inspiration. Namely, just like Poseidon, Pegasus was capable of creating water streams wherever he’d struck his hoof. At least two famous springs in Greece, both named Hippocrene (“Horse Spring”), were widely believed to have been issued forth by Pegasus’ hoof. Corinth was a rich and quite powerful ancient city and seaport on the narrow isthmus that joins the Peloponnesos with the rest of Greece. Like most Hellenic city-states, Corinth produced its own distinctive coins. Pegasos appears on many of them and is one of the most important and known ancient coins.
Like the predecessors Tortoise and Athena’s Owl Pegasos is a worthy and eye catching modern twist of a numismatic legend. |
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