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.
Collector coins are dedicated to historical or general popular culture themes not related to the country itself. Many of them are in standard bullion sizes, including the large three ounces of silver format - such as this coin.
The Mint says about it:
This is the fifth edition in our successful “Spiritual Art” series, and is dedicated to the famous Zeus. Zeus is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion. He was respected as an allfather who was chief of the gods, who rules from Mount Olympus. His name is cognate with his Roman equivalent Jupiter. He was regarded as the sender of thunder and lightning, rain, and winds, and his traditional weapon was the thunderbolt.
This stunning coin is based on the Statue of Zeus which was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It was a giant seated figure, about 12.4 m tall, made by the Greek sculptor Phidias around 435 BC at the sanctuary of Olympia, Greece, and erected in the Temple of Zeus. Zeus sat on a painted cedarwood throne ornamented with ebony, ivory, gold, and precious stones. The statue was lost and destroyed during the 5th century AD. Details of its form are known only from ancient Greek descriptions and representations on coins. |
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The obverse of the coin shows the crowned mature head of Queen Elizabeth II facing right (her effigy known as the "Fourth Portrait"). The Queen wears the "Girls of Great Britain and Ireland" diamond tiara, a wedding gift from Queen Mary (Her Majesty's grandmother) in 1947 - which she also has on the Machin and the Gottwald portraits.
In small letters below the head, the artist's initials IRB (for Ian Rank-Broadley).
Around the effigy is the monarch's legend, the date of issue and the value: ELIZABETH II COOK ISLANDS 20 DOLLARS 2022.
The effigy and inscriptions are inside a circle surrounded by an Ancient Greek decorative motif, which is placed on a pedestal in what looks like a Greek temple.
On the pedestal below, the unique serial number of the coin in the format [number]/501, below which the date of issue 2022. |
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