I brought a pear along for lunch today, and had nothing else to display the coin with, so the pear it is! Not a bad tasting pear either. I ate it shortly after the photos were taken and while writing most of this post. Well I guess you could say voice to text writing.
I set her on the center console of my truck and that was that. It was an easy and convenient photo opportunity.
And what a SMALL island nation! Somewhere way out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, East of New Zeland, there is a small island "known for their limestone cliffs and coral reef diving". The island nation is quite small. Maybe not the smallest, but small nonetheless. How small? Well, Not small enough to fully back this silver coin I am going to show you today!
Has one road that runs around the island connecting all 1,622 people. There is a total of 101 sq miles (261 sq kilometres) of island to explore. That's not much. It's about the size of Nantucket Island in Massachusetts, except Nantucket has roughly 11,327 people living there.. Oh roughly 7 times as many people. Wow, but it must be hard getting food and supplies out there, thus keeping the population a little lower.
Both Source Photos above, compliments of Google Maps
Although Niue uses the New Zealand Dollar as their currency, this silver 2 dollar coin is backed by their government. This 1 ounce silver coin is interesting in several ways. Well, interesting to me, visually. The first thing that stands out is its wide outer border. The border is reeded and makes stacking the coin very easy. They sort of lock together like poker chips.
Those silvergoldstacker members heading to Vegas may appreciate that! hehe
Inside that reeding and on the reverse of the coin, the owl of Athena can be found. Athena, as some of you may be aware, is a Greek goddess, and the owl was associated with her often. I believe it symbolizes Athena's wisdom. Along with the owl, a crescent moon and olive sprig can be seen.
What makes this interesting to me is the wide eyes of the owl, the reeding, and the hammered look to the area around the owl. It sort of grows on you after a while.
The same hammered look and wide reeding, can be found on the obverse of the coin as well. The hammered look makes the font details hard to see in my opinion. I like sharp and easy to read words. The bust of the queen can be found sitting in the coins center. She is depicted in a matte finish that is quite the contrast to the highly buffed hammered finish that surrounds her.
The edge of the coin is also reeded. I'm good, but not that good. Now way I could balance that coin on top of that pear. I tried though! No luck, so I ate the sucker. The pear not the coin!
The coin is produced by SilverTowne but I purchased it off of the JMBullion site. I like JMBullion mostly due to their free shipping after a certain purchase threshold is reached. It's easy to reach when buying metals. You can find the coin Here if you're interested in picking one up for yourself. $30.26 USD each given todays silver prices. Not too bad of a premium, but you can do better if you are just interested in weight not a pretty coin.
I manipulated one of my photos in order to create my own little interpretation of an owl.. A Pear Owl! Enjoy the artistry! More weird.. I know. I know. lways pushing the edge of creativity.. hahaha.......
A place for people who Love Orchids!
This blog post is not meant as financial advice. I'm not a certified financial planner/advisor nor a certified financial analyst nor an economist nor a CPA nor an accountant nor a lawyer. Conduct your own due diligence, or consult a licensed financial advisor or broker before making any and all investment decisions.
