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 fourth issue in the Milky Way series by the Czech Mint, and features the first animal in orbit - a dog named Laika.
The mint says about it:
The first creatures to reach space, which means to cross the 100-kilometre mark above the Earth - were American octopuses in 1947, but the first animal to orbit the Earth was a Soviet dog. Her name was Laika (literally translated as “bark dog“) and her home was the streets of Moscow. Why did scientists choose her? They reasoned that a stray mongrel, who is used to a hard life, hunger and thirst, would be more likely to handle the demanding preparation and flight to space. Last but not least, Laika was sweet and charming - an ideal candidate for photographs to enhance the prestige of the communist regime...
The two-year-old female stood up to the training perfectly - she got used to the cramped cabin, where she could only sit and lie down, to the special mushy diet, to the high overload, which she practised on the centrifuge, and to the deafening roar of the rocket engines. She went into orbit aboard the Sputnik 2 satellite on 3 November 1957. Sending a canine passenger was a prerequisite for human flight, as the effects of space travel on living organisms were unknown. Unfortunately, return from orbit was not yet possible, therefore, Laika lost her life for science...
No photographs or computer graphics were used as a template - the author of the coin created an original watercolour painting |
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The reverse of the coin shows an artist's impression of a rocket in vivid colours, as it orbits the Earth with the dog Laika looking out through the window. In the background, space-related symbols: star, planet orbit, and a satellite.
Below left, the inscription LAIKA, below which, the monograms of the designer Asamat Baltaev. |
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