New Zealand uses the New Zealand Dollar as its circulation currency for daily transactions. The country also issues a number of commemorative and collector coins, including in the internationally popular one ounce of silver format (abbreviated as 1 oz Ag, where "Ag" comes from the Latin word for silver, Argentum). Authorised by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, the official issuer of these coins is NZ Post - which also issues the country's postal stamps. Manufacturing of the coins is commissioned to various foreign mints.
The coins are "Non-Circulating Legal Tender" (NCLT) and not bullion because they are issued at prices much higher than their intrinsic value and are targeted at collectors who appreciate them for their artistic or sentimental value, and not at bullion investors.
New Zealand has the tradition of issuing one large commemorative per year which is included in the annual coin set, and this coin is the 2019 New Zealand Annual Coin, featuring the North Island Takahē bird. Known by Māori as the mōho, this extinct rail was first identified by bones found in the North Island of New Zealand in the mid 19th century. The European discovery the mōho is intertwined with that of the South Island takahē.
There is one reference to a possible European sighting of a mōho. It was reported that in 1894 a surveyor captured a large, unfamiliar blue bird in the northern Ruahine Range, causing great excitement among Māori elders who were shown the skin. This specimen has not survived, but it is tentatively regarded as having been a North Island takahē.
The coin coin was designed by New Zealand artist Dave Burke. The takahē is encircled by unique koru designs, layered to make the bird’s beak visually protrude from the flat surface. |