Gold Ounce 2022 Platypus, 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 celebrates the Australian Platypus.

Proof that mother nature works in mysterious ways, this egg-laying, duck-billed, beaver-tailed, otter-footed mammal is Australia’s most unique inhabitant - and it is venomous too! Grabbing headlines as an elaborate ‘hoax’ when it was first discovered by European naturalists in 1798, the platypus is a menagerie of diverse creatures rolled into one! It gets its name from the Greek “platys”, meaning flat and “pous”, meaning foot. Indigenous peoples have many different names for this creature and according to one legend the platypus was the result of the union of a young female duck with a very persuasive water-rat!

Adding to its unusual list of talents and phenomenal characteristics, platypuses, like sharks, possess electrolocation, which means they can detect electric signals from their prey underwater. They can also, mysteriously, glow blueish-green under fluorescent light because of an ability called biofluorescence. Very few animals on earth are known to have this capability and the platypus is the only mammal that displays this trait!