Cook Islands Wildlife Conservation Coins
Many previous articles on this blog already introduced exotic precious metal coins such as the articles about Myanmar gold coins or Zimbabwean gold coins. This article will be another edition to this series of articles about exotic coins as it attempts to introduce the Cook Islands Wildlife Conservation Coins. This coin series consists of three coins out of Sterling silver that were issued in 2013.
Instead of investors, it is clearly collectors that are the target market of the Cook Islands Wildlife Conservation Coins. After all, the coins are fairly high priced and their mintage is limited to only 2,500 pieces per coin issue. Furthermore, they are only available with a proof finish and their silver purity of 92.5% is below the purity standard for silver bullion coins. What makes the coins unique and appealing to collectors though is their use of multi-color prismatic technology on their reverse side which each shows protected wildlife, specifically penguins, polar bears and humpback whales.
reverse side of the penguin edition of the Cook Islands Wildlife Conservation Coins
There is always an adult animal that appears at the center of the coin and a baby animal nearby. The prismatic surface of the reverse side of the coin makes the adult animal appear in different colors depending on the angle of how the coin is tilted. The baby animal however is depicted as monochrome so that it blend in with the background surface of the respective coin.
As is common with coins that were issued by countries that were historically affiliated with the United Kingdom, it is the image of the British monarch Queen Elizabeth II who just passed away last year that can be seen on the obverse side of the Cook Islands Wildlife Conservation Coins. The official $5 denomination of the three silver proof coins that constitute this exotic coin series can be seen just underneath her majesty’s portrait. The best bet for collectors to obtain the coins is ordering from the reputed precious metals dealer JM Bullion online. You can find all three coins of the series listed for sale on this page of the JM Bullion website.
