Silver Ounce 2020 Solar System - Venus, 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).

This coin is part of the Solar System series of coloured proofs and features the planet Venus.

The Mint says about it:
Venus gets closest to Earth in space and is the brightest object in the night sky after the moon. We also know the planet named after the Roman goddess of beauty and love as Evening star and Morning star. The greatest heat on its surface is 462°C. The cause is a dense atmosphere which consists mainly of carbon dioxide with clouds of sulphuric acid and causes a greenhouse effect. The pressure here is ninety times the earth and the temperature is the same throughout the year. The Venus year lasts 224 Earth days and 17 hours and is shorter than the Venus day, which lasts 243 Earth days and 4 hours.

Medal makers Asamat Baltaev, DiS., and Jiří Hanuš, DiS., dedicated the reverse side of the coin to a coloured depiction of Venus. 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".