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 premium bullion coin is officially licensed by APMEX in partnership with KONAMI, and commemorates the 25th anniversary of Yu-Gi-Oh!, one of the most popular manga series and trading card games in the world.
Yu-Gi-Oh! debuted as a manga in 1996, written and illustrated by Kazuki Takahashi. Published in the Weekly Shonen Jump magazine, it didn't take long for the manga to gain steam and eventually spawn into an anime series and later an actual trading card game. Since being first introduced in the mid-90s, Yu-Gi-Oh! has become one of the world's largest grossing media franchises of all time.
The story follows a bullied teenager in high school, Yugi Mutou, who one day solves the ancient Millennium Puzzle. By solving the ancient Millennium Puzzle, Yugi awakens an alter-ego or spirit that likes to gamble and solve conflicts through games such as cards, dice, or role-playing board games. Yugi uses this newfound power to awaken his alter-ego known as Yami Yugi by challenging those with darkness in their hearts, but only if threatened. Yami Yugi would awaken and challenge them to a game known as Shadow Games. The game reveals the true nature of someone's heart while the loser of the contests would often be subjected to a dark punishment called a Penalty Game. Later on in the series, Yugi and his friends eventually learn that the alter-ego inside of the puzzle known as Yami Yugi is actually a nameless ancient Egyptian Pharaoh who lost his memories. Yugi and his friends vow to help the ancient Egyptian Pharaoh regain his lost memories. Along the journey they find themselves going through dangerous trials, wagering their lives while facing off against gamers that wield the other Millennium Items and the dark power of the Shadow Games.
The Yu-Gi-Oh card game itself is a turn-based game where you duel against an opponent and their deck of cards. The goal is to summon monster cards to attack and reduce your opponent's Life Points. In the card game, there are three main types of cards that make up the 60-card deck: Monster Cards, Spell Cards and Trap Cards. |