Silver Ounce 2021 Solar System - Saturn, 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 Saturn.

The Mint says about it:
The Czech Mint dedicated this silver coin from the Solar System cycle to the planet Saturn. Saturn is a gas giant named after the Roman god of time. Gas giants are not formed by rocks and do not have a solid surface unlike terrestrial planets such as Earth and Mars. Saturn consists primarily of hydrogen and helium and has the lowest density of any planet in the solar system - even lower than the density of water, so it could float on the surface. The winds blow ten times faster than hurricanes on Earth here. Saturn's iconic system of rings that are hundreds of thousands of kilometres wide but sometimes only a few meters thick, is made of ice. Titan, which is the only moon in the solar system to have a high dense atmosphere, is Saturn's most interesting moon.

The reverse side of the coin was dedicated to a depiction of Saturn 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".