Forty Ducats 2021 Slovak Cross, Coin from Niue - detailed information

Niue, a sovereign state in free association with New Zealand, uses two official legal tender currencies. The New Zealand Dollar is the circulation currency for daily transactions, while the government also authorises legal tender coins in the Niue Dollar currency for collector's purposes.

A number of mints issue a large variety of commemorative and collector coins under the authority of Niue. One of them is the Czech Mint, which uses not only standard bullion sizes but also some formats based on the Czech Gold Ducat, including 40 Ducats weighing a massive 139.5 grams.

The coins are "Non-Circulating Legal Tender" (NCLT) and not bullion because they are issued at prices much higher than their bullion value and are targeted at collectors who appreciate them for their artistic or sentimental value, and not at bullion investors.

The Mint says about this coin:
The double-armed cross is the largest symbol of Slovakia. The Czech Mint pays a tribute to it by issuing a large gold coin whose weight is derived from the historical forty ducats and which is intended mainly for Slovak collectors and investors.

The two-armed cross, which is also known as the patriarchal cross, is an ancient religious symbol. It is based on the traditional Latin cross that every Christian is familiar with, but has one extra shorter bar at the top. This symbolises the table that Pontius Pilate had affixed over the head of the crucified Jesus Christ to announce his name and offence. But how did this specific cross become a symbol of Slovakia? In the early Middle Ages, the double-armed cross was the official symbol of the emperor of the Byzantine Empire, from where the heralds Cyril and Methodius came to Central Europe to spread Christianity. The Christian symbol became so popular in the Slavic countries that first Nitra region and later Great Moravia chose it as their state emblem. The Patriarchal Cross remained in veneration even after the demise of the Great Moravian Empire, when the Hungarians, who subverted the Slavic state, began to use it as a sign of sovereignty and power.

The symbol of the Hungarian kings returned to the hands of the Slavs only in the revolutionary year of 1848, when Ľudovít Štúr declared it the emblem of all Slovaks.