The Republic of Palau is an island country in the western Pacific, in free association with the United States. In one way or another, the country has been under US administration since it was established, and has never had its own separate currency - it has always used the US Dollar. However, Palau allows some foreign mints to issue coins under its authority; these are denominated in US Dollars but are only legal tender in Palau, so can in a way be considered to be in "Palau Dollars", even though such a currency does not officially exist.
The coins are usually dedicated to historical or general popular culture themes not related to the country itself. Many of them are in the internationally popular half gram (0.5g) of gold collector format.
The Golden Catrina Skull is part of the large Golden Highlights series of specially shaped gold mini-coins by CIT Coin Invest, and also part of the Skulls collection.
The Mint says about it: "The Día de Muertos - Day of the Dead - is a Mexican holiday that is becoming increasingly popular throughout the world. Celebrated at the end of October the iconic skull or calavera makeup based on the famous La Catrina skeleton adorns many faces and is nowadays prominently featured in pop culture and art. CIT’s sensational skull series is the perfect way to extend the popularity of La Catrina to the numismatic world. La Catrina Skull is already the third and clearly most elaborate of CIT’s smartminting skull-shaped coins. Minted to the same standard as the revered Skull No1 but adorned with fine detail and typical calavara designs, La Catrina Skull represents the most captivating silver skull in the collection. Customarily, a small gold coin [this coin] with similar ornaments is issued alongside the silver coin."
The coin is shaped like a skull. Like all other gold half grams in the special shapes series, the date of issue is not written on the coin. |