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, bullion 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 - typically, one ounce of silver (abbreviated as 1 oz Ag, where "Ag" comes from the Latin word for silver, Argentum). Many of these feature famous movie characters.
This coloured silver proof coin is part of a New Zealand Mint series featuring ships from the Star Wars movies and shows a T-47 Snowspeeder.
The T-47 Snowspeeder, which was rebuilt by the Rebel Alliance to serve as a fast flying transport vehicle for patrol and defence. After the Rebel Alliance established its base on the remote ice planet Hoth, a contingent of T-47 Airspeeders were modified to become ground attack, low-altitude fighters called Snowspeeders. The engineers of the rebels made some adjustments to equip the ship against the cold and snow storms and to have a fast flying ship even in these weather conditions. With a length of just 5.3 meters, the T-47 Snowspeeder is a comparatively small aircraft, which nevertheless had room for a pilot and a gunner. |