Silver Two Ounces 2016 Harald Fairhair, 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 - for example, two ounces of silver (abbreviated as 2 oz Ag, where "Ag" comes from the Latin word for silver, Argentum).

This coin is part of the Vikings: Gods, Kings and Warrior Series by Scottsdale Mint and features Harald Fairhair.

Harald I Fairhair (Old Norse: Haraldr inn hárfagri; Norwegian: Harald hårfagre; Modern Icelandic: Haraldur hárfagri) is portrayed by the Icelandic sagas as the first King of Norway. According to traditions current in Norway and Iceland in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, he reigned from around 872 to 930. Supposedly, two of his sons, Eric Bloodaxe and Haakon the Good, succeeded Harald, respectively, to become kings after his death.

Much of Harald's biography remains uncertain, since the extant accounts of his life in the sagas were set down in writing around three centuries after his lifetime. Indeed, although it is possible to write a detailed account of Harald as a character in medieval Icelandic sagas, it is even possible to argue that there was no such historical figure at all. His life is described in several of the Kings' sagas, none of them older than the twelfth century. Their accounts of Harald and his life differ on many points, but it is clear that in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries Harald was regarded as having unified Norway into one kingdom.