Silver Ounce 2022 Aba Panu 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 Aba Panu 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:
A large fireball detonated over the Nigerian state of Oyo in the afternoon of 19 April 2018. A meteoroid entered the Earth’s atmosphere. The extra-terrestrial rocks dug deep cracks and craters in the dry soil of Africa. They were named after the village of Aba Panu, located near the centre of the strewn field. Every day, Earth is bombarded with more than 100 tons of dust and sand-sized particles from space. About once a year, an automobile-sized asteroid hits, creating a spectacular fireball event as the friction of Earth’s atmosphere causes them to disintegrate.