Silver Ounce 2020 Mythical Creatures - Phoenix, 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 popular characters from myths, legends and tales.

This coin is part of the Mythical Creatures series of premium bullion coins by the Czech Mint and features the legendary Phoenix.

“In fact, I have not seen any, I have only seen its artistic representation. It resembles an eagle due to its size. Its feathers are mostly gold, but red to purple predominate" - described the Greek historian Herodotus the animal of Egypt in the 5th century BC. The Father of History spoke of a creature named Bennu that was born of himself. Bennu represented the immortal soul of the god Re and symbolised the eternal cycle of rebirth - whether in the form of a regular flood of the Nile or a pilgrimage of the Sun across the sky.

In Greece, the creature was called Phoenix - literally "red-purple bird". It was said it will burn itself to death every five centuries in order to rise from the ashes in full force.

The reverse design is by Mária Filová; the obverse is by Asamat Baltaev - who also designed the reverses of some coins in the series.