Silver Ounce 2013 Coinbar, 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 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 - typically, one ounce of silver (abbreviated as 1 oz Ag, where "Ag" comes from the Latin word for silver, Argentum). Those issued at prices much higher than their bullion value are separately listed in the Non-Circulating Legal Tender (NCLT) silver 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 legal tender coin with the form factor of a bullion bar (thus named a "coinbar") is part of the extensive bullion range of the Scottsdale Mint.

The mint says about it:
As legal tender of Niue Island, the Scottsdale CoinBar has a nominal face value of $2 NZD and is a perfect fusion of world-class minting, contemporary design, and new technology. All new Mint Guard technology provides special latent imagery stamped into each bar - embedded security that can be validated without using a magnifying glass or any other decoding device.

The bidirectional latent image text can be seen by viewing the bar in the profile; depending upon the viewing angle, both 2013 and VALID appear. The obverse features the timeless Makhlouf effigy of Queen Elizabeth II. The reverse is struck with the iconic Scottsdale Lion backed by a radiating sun.