Silver Ounce 2021 Solar System - Neptune, 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 the last in the Solar System series of coloured proofs by the Czech Mint, and features the planet Neptune.

The Mint says about it:
After the discovery of Uranus, astronomers began searching for other planets and found one in the 19th century. The last planet of the Solar system, which is also the last gas giant, was named after the Roman god of the seas. Neptune gets only minimal heat from the Sun, which is 4.5 billion-kilometre away, but it generates its own - which then powers stormy weather systems. Neptune's winds are the strongest in the solar system - blowing at 2,400 kilometres per hour, more than twice the speed of sound. The planet has no shortage of rings, though they are very thin, and Triton stands out among its moons, which experience gas and dust eruptions.

The reverse side of the coin was dedicated to a depiction of Uranus in vivid colours, which was achieved using pad printing technology by medal makers Asamat Baltaev, DiS., and Jiří Hanuš, DiS. 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".