CIT dedicates its latest coin to the Inca sun god Inti. Thanks to state-of-the-art smartminting® technology, it was possible to reconstruct a mysterious cult object that the Incas, members of a now lost culture, kept for centuries as their greatest treasure.
Description of the Coin
One side features the face of the sun god Inti, the most important god of the Incas, in the lower field 2021.
The other side depicts the coat of arms of Palau with the inscription REPUBLIC OF PALAU $ 5.
The minting is executed in smartminting® (Ultra High Relief) technology by B. H. Mayer’s Kunstprägeanstalt, Munich.
Background
In 1598, the Spanish got hold of a document that described in detail where the last Inca ruler hid the treasure of his people from the Spanish conquerors. The author of the text was a Spaniard who claimed to have seen the cave: He rescued the daughter of the former ruler. To reward him, the “Sapa Inca” climbed up into the mountains with him. He led him to a cave full of gold, silver and gemstones. He took fourteen gold bars from there as a reward for the good deed of the Spaniard.
We don’t know whether the author of the document actually saw the Inca treasure or just told a lie that was readily believed. If he had indeed seen the legendary cave, he might have also seen the disc with the face of the sun god Inti, which was the inspiration for a new coin by CIT Coin Invest.
As many peoples of Central and South America, the Incas worshipped the sun. They considered the sun god Inti to be their ancestor and supreme deity. His image adorned temples in all parts of the Inca Empire. The most famous depiction was kept in the main Inca temple, the Golden Temple of Cusco. There, Inti manifested itself in a gigantic disc of gold, which we know about from Spanish sources. A few gold objects that have survived to this day demonstrate what this disc looked like. One of these is the disc of Echeniques, which was presented as a gift to the president of Peru on the occasion of a visit in Cusco and is now kept in the Smithsonian Museum / Washington. It became the model for the coin by CIT Coin Invest.
Further information about the coin, visit the website of CIT.
If you want to experience all three dimensions of this coin, you have to watch this film.
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In a TED-Talk Gordon McEwan talks about the rise and fall of the Inca Empire:
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In Cosmos of Collectibles you can find this coin as well as all previous coins by CIT.
Items of the Incas can also be found in the swiss city of Schaffhausen.
