Silver Twenty-five Grams 2006 Nantan Meteorite, Coin from Palau - detailed information

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 sizes based on the troy ounce, but some are "metric" - such as twenty-five grams (25 g) of silver.

This coin featuring the Nantan Meteorite is part of the Meteorite Impacts collection which is issued in a number of different countries; all coins in it have an embedded original piece of the specific meteorite.

The fall of the meteorite might have been observed in 1516, but it is difficult to assess if this event is connected with the pieces that were retrieved in 1958.

The meteorite burst during passage through the atmosphere and the pieces were scattered in a strewn field 28 kilometres long and 8 kilometres wide near the city of Nantan, Nandan County, Guangxi, China. The meteorite was named after the city.