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).
This coin is part of the Solar System series of coloured proofs and features the planet Mercury.
The Mint says about it:
Mercury is the first and the smallest planet in the solar system. It is not much larger than the Moon and resembles its surface that is scarred by thousands of craters. Its atmosphere is thin, and even though Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun, heat is rapidly escaping from its surface. It is very cold there after dark. While the temperature can rise up to 430°C on the hemisphere facing the Sun, the reverse hemisphere is freezing to -180°C. Mercury orbits an ellipse that is highly eccentric. Its years are short and do not even last two Mercury days. Therefore, the planet bears the name of the messenger of the Roman gods.
The reverse side of the coin, which was designed by the authors Asamat Baltaev, DiS. and Jiří Hanuš, DiS., presents a colourised depiction of Mercury.. Photographs or computer graphics were not used as a template for colouring - the medal makers created original watercolour paintings. The obverse side of the coin, designed by Asamat Baltaev, is dedicated to the depiction of the entire solar system and presents astronomical symbols of individual planets.
The coin surface is characterised by a special treatment - a combination of proofing, sandblasting and laser treatment of the dies resulted in a new effect, which we called "moon dust". | 
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