Silver Ounce 2020 Viñales Meteorite, 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 one ounce of silver - such as this coin.

This coin featuring the Viñales 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:
Do you remember what you did on February 1st, 2019? People in Viñales, a little city in western Cuba do for sure. On that day hundreds of meteorite stones showered down in the area. The meteorites could be seen even from the Florida Keys in the US. In total 100 kg of extraterrestrial material was collected. So the Viñales Meteorite, the 2020 edition of this series (already the 16th issue) can be considered a new meteorite as it is one of the latest official impacts.

This stunning piece tells a story. A story how the meteorite, of which an original 2.5 mm part is embedded, has hit the ground. And to picture this dynamic impact on this 1 oz coin CIT uses the new possibilities of the enhanced smartminting technology. The crater starts from the edge of the coin and ultra high relief creates earth walls in a very realistic way. The combination of proof, frosted and satin areas let us see what people in Viñales experienced in February 2019.