Silver Half Ounce 2016 Tamdakht Meteorite Strike, Coin from Cook Islands - detailed information

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 bullion sizes, including half of a troy ounce of silver - such as this coin.

This coin featuring the Tamdakht Meteorite is part of the Meteorite Impacts collection which is issued in a number of different countries; all coins in it have an embedded original piece of the specific meteorite.

The Mint says about it:
Just a few years ago sticking a piece of a meteorite onto a coin was considered innovative. These days innovative technique requires a little more effort. As the result, the Tamdakht Meteorite Strike coin is overstruck, leading to cracks and even a desired breakthrough where the meteorite seemingly struck the coin. During this monitored destruction process, the break points occur at random, making each coin unique.

The Tamdakht meteorite fell near Ouarzazate, Morocco on 20 December 2008, producing a strewn field of approximately 25 kilometres by 2 kilometres and two small impact craters, one of about 1.1 metres diameter and 70 centimetres depth at 31°09.8′N 7°00.9′W and the other of about 20 centimetres diameter and 10 centimetres depth at 31°09.9′N 07°02.3′W. The meteorite is named after a village close to the fall.