Gold Ounce 2020 Deadly and Dangerous - Tarantula, 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. These coins are dedicated to historical or general popular culture themes not related to Niue itself. Many of them are in standard bullion sizes - such as one ounce of gold (abbreviated as 1 oz Au, where "Au" comes from the Latin word for gold, Aurum).

This coin is part of the Deadly and Dangerous series featuring native Australian animals, and is a gold version of the silver piece of the same year showing a Tarantula.

The infamous crawler is known as the barking or whistling spider because of the noises it makes when threatened. More widely, the tarantula is also known as the ‘bird-eater’ for its sheer size!

Selenocosmia crassipes (synonym Phlogius crassipes), also known as the "Queensland whistling tarantula" (or "barking spider"), is a species of tarantula native to the east coast of Queensland, Australia. The name "whistling tarantula" comes from its ability to produce a hissing noise when provoked, a trait it shares with other Australian tarantulas. This hissing is produced by the spider stridulating a patch of setae associated with its chelicerae. It has also been called the "eastern tarantula". The species name crassipes is Latin for "fat leg" referring to its relatively fat front legs.

Selenocosmia crassipes can attain leg spans of up to 22 cm. Its body length, from eyes to the rear of its abdomen, measures between 6 and 9 cm, making it the largest Australian tarantula.