One Hundred Ducats 2015 Saint Ludmila, 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. One of them is the Czech Mint, which uses not only standard bullion sizes but also some formats based on the Czech Gold Ducat, including 100 Ducats weighing a massive 348.5 grams.

The coins are "Non-Circulating Legal Tender" (NCLT) and not bullion because they are issued at prices much higher than their bullion value and are targeted at collectors who appreciate them for their artistic or sentimental value, and not at bullion investors.

The Mint says about this coin:
Patroness of Bohemia, grandmothers, mothers, Christian educators and winegrowers - all these nicknames belong to Saint Ludmila, who is also known as the mother of the Czech lands. She was the first Slavic saint, worshipped by all Orthodox Slavs. Our country is the only Roman Catholic country which recognised her.

The Czech Mint dedicates to this exceptional pious woman a new issue of investment gold 100-ducats coins. Ludmila was born around the year 860 as the daughter of Vladyka Slaviboř. As a child she was married to Přmyslid Bořivoj I. Both were baptised by St. Methodius in Great Moravia around the year 883. For Ludmila it meant an extremely deep radical change. She gave birth to seven children and after his husband's death she stayed in the castle Tetín. The princely throne was successively occupied by her sons Spytihněv and then Vratislaus, who died prematurely in 921. Ludmila´s daughter-in-law Drahomíra assumed government on behalf of his infant son Wenceslaus. Ludmila brought him up in love for the Slavic liturgy. His mother did not like that fact and she did not like the idea of sharing their power in the country either. She hired assassins then and ordered them to strangle Ludmila in Tetín during the same year. Ludmila's body was hastily buried in the ground by Tetín castle wall.

Wenceslaus transferred his grandmother's remains to Prague in 924, where she was buried with great piety in St. George`s Church, and laid the foundations of the cult of Saint Ludmila. Her sanctity was recognised between the years 1143-1144.