Silver Ounce 2018 Animal Skins - Pinniped, 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, 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 various animals.

This coin is part of the Animal Skins series and depicts a baby seal - Pinniped.

The mint says about it:
Their name being derived from the Latin words "pinna" (fin, flap or wing) and "pedis" (foot), there are 33 living species of the "fin-footed" pinnipeds, distributed mainly in polar, sub-polar and temperate waters. Unlike whales and dolphins, pinnipeds share their time between the water and the land, generally hauling out on land in order to mate, rest, give birth and moult. Descended from either bear-like or otter-like creatures who entered the seas millions of years ago, these mammals have adapted to their marine existence in many ways. Pinnipeds around the world eat a wide variety of food, ranging from krill in the Southern Ocean through crustaceans and molluscs to fish and squid. Some leopard seals even specialise in eating penguins.

Pinnipeds have few natural predators, the main ones being killer whales, some sharks, polar bears and man. To protect themselves from the cold, pinnipeds have developed large layers of blubber under their skin. This blubber also helps in the streamlining of their shape, allowing these torpedo-shaped animals to chase their prey underwater with amazing effectiveness. Pinnipeds also have a larger relative volume of blood than other mammals allowing them to store large amounts of oxygen in their blood on very deep and prolonged dives with dives of up to 1,600 metres and 2 hours having been recorded.