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 coins under the authority of Niue. Most of these are commemorative and collector issues 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). Those issued at prices much higher than their bullion value are separately listed in the Non-Circulating Legal Tender (NCLT) silver ounce section of the site.
Unlike them, this coin is targeted at bullion investors and was initially released at a price close to the value of its precious metal content.
This coin is part of a New Zealand Mint collection of "premium bullion coins" featuring movie characters and themes, and is the fourth in a series dedicated to the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. The coin's theme is Queen Anne's Revenge, the ship from "Pirates of the Caribbean - On Stranger Tides" 2011 film.
The Queen Anne's Revenge is a three-masted full-rigged ship with red paint and gold leaf on the stern. The figurehead depicts a skeleton holding a scythe in its right hand. The bow and stern of the ship are also decorated with numerous miniature skeletons. The red sails, which are very dirty and perforated, refer to the ship's years of service in numerous battles. A peculiarity of the Queen Anne's Revenge is that she has changed ownership and nationality several times - she was British, then French, before finally being under Blackbeard's command. The 30-meter-long ship weighs 300 tons and is equipped with a total of 40 cannons. |