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 coins under the authority of Niue. Most of these are commemorative and collector issues dedicated to historical or general popular culture themes not related to Niue itself. Many of them are in standard bullion sizes, including one ounce of gold (abbreviated as 1 oz Au, where "Au" comes from the Latin word for gold, Aurum). Those issued at prices much higher than their bullion value are separately listed in the Non-Circulating Legal Tender (NCLT) gold ounce section of the site.
Unlike them, this coin is targeted at bullion investors and was initially released at a price close to the value of its precious metal content.
This bullion coin is part of a New Zealand Mint series dedicated to Star Wars characters and features a Clone Trooper.
The Mint says about it: "The Star Wars Clone Trooper 1oz Gold Bullion Coin features an officially licensed, close up image of an armed Clone Trooper running into battle, against a backdrop of the Imperial logo. The coin reverse also features the metal weight and quality, and it has been stamped with the Lucasfilm copyright and New Zealand Mint logo to provide further authenticity."
The Clone Troopers are soldiers bred by the Galactic Republic. Their genome comes from the bounty hunter Jango Fett. The Army of Clones was used in the science fiction film Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clone Warriors in 2002. |