| Coin | Silver Twenty-five Grams 2008 Pultusk Meteorite |
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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 bullion sizes based on the troy ounce, but some are "metric", like twenty-five grams (25g) of silver.
This coin featuring the Pultusk 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.
Pultusk is an H5 ordinary chondrite meteorite which fell on 30 January 1868 in Poland. The event has been known as the stony meteorite shower with the largest number of pieces yet recorded in history. Made up of rocky debris, it consists of pyroxene or olivine chondrules deployed in mass plagioclase, there being also kamacite. |
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| Obverse | |
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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", by Ian Rank-Broadley). 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.
The portrait is in its "uncouped" version which extends below the neck and shows the Queen's shoulders. The designer's initials are not shown.
Around the effigy is the monarch's legend and the face value: ELIZABETH II COOK ISLANDS 5 DOLLARS. |
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| Reverse | |
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The reverse features a view towards the Earth, with PULTUSK highlighted, and large stones falling towards it from space. A piece of the actual meteorite has been embedded in one of the depicted rocks.
Around above left, the inscription METEORITE FALL 1868. Around below, the date of issue 2008. |
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| Reverse Inscription |
METEORITE FALL 1868 PULTUSK 2008 |
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| Edge | Milled | Edge Inscription | None |
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| Notes | Finish: proof, meteorite insert.
CIT Item ID: 23300. |
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| See also |
Coins in the Meteorite Impacts collection include:
- 2 oz Silver, Meteorite NWA 267, Liberia 2004
- 25 g Silver, Nantan Meteorite, Palau 2006
- 25 g Silver, Brenham Pallasite Meteorite, Cook Islands 2007
- 1/4 oz Gold, Pultusk Meteorite, Cook Islands 2008
- 25 g Silver, Pultusk Meteorite, Cook Islands 2008
- 25 g Silver, Observation of Mars, Cook Islands 2009
- 25 g Silver, Meteorite HAH 280, Cook Islands 2010
- 20 g Silver, Muonionalusta Meteorite, Cook Islands 2011
- 20 g Silver, Seymchan Meteorite, Cook Islands 2012
- 20 g Silver, Chelyabinsk Meteorite, Cook Islands 2013
- 1 oz Silver, Moldavite Impact, Cook Islands 2014
- 1 oz Silver, Chondrite Impact - Meteorite NWA 4037, Cook Islands 2015
- 1/2 oz Silver, Tamdakht Meteorite, Cook Islands 2016
- 1/2 oz Silver, Chergach Meteorite, Cook Islands 2017
- 1/2 oz Silver, Erfoud Meteorite NWA 6827, Cook Islands 2018
- 1/2 oz Silver, Estacado Meteorite, Cook Islands 2019
- 1 oz Silver, Viñales Meteorite, Cook Islands 2020
- 1 oz Silver, La Ciénega Meteorite, Cook Islands 2021
- 1 oz Silver, Aba Panu Meteorite, Cook Islands 2022
- 1 oz Silver, Tenham Meteorite, Cook Islands 2023
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