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 coin is part of a New Zealand Mint series dedicated to characters from famous movies and features a Mandalorian Mythosaur from the Star Wars universe.
"The Mythosaur was a large and powerful dragon-like creature native to the Mandalorian homeworld of Mandalore in the Outer Rim. Upon the arrival of Mandalore the First, the Mythosaurs became a challenging target for early Mandalorians to test their battle skills. Eventually they were driven to extinction, but their ferocity and size has made them a key part of Mandalorian legends. Today, the symbolic representation of a Mythosaur skull is used as the official Mandalorian sigil." |