December 22, 2016 – For the Cook Islands, Coin Invest Trust has designed the “Tamdakht Meteorite Strike”, a coin whose intentional overstrike lets the surface appear like a crater. The breakthrough renders each of the 2500 available Antique-Finish silver coins a unique specimen.
Cook Islands / 2 Dollars 2016 / Silver .999 / 1/2 oz. / 38.61 mm / Antique-Finish / Mintage: 2500 pcs.
In addition to the breakthrough on the coin field, the obverse shows the Ian Rank-Broadley portrait of Elizabeth II as well as her name, the name of the issuing nation and the nominal value.
The jointed relief lets the obverse appear like a crater with a breakthrough in the centre.
2 kg stone meteorite which fell near Tamdakht, Morocco on December 20, 2008. Photo: Meteorite Recon / CC BY 3.0
On December 20, 2008, at 10:37 pm local time, a meteorite hit the earth north of Tamdakht in Morocco. Eye witnesses speak of a glaring fireball in the sky, accompanied by rolling thunder and shock waves. While first assumptions believed the incident to be an explosion or a crashing airplane, the find of the rock positively identified it as a meteorite strike. The meteorite’s fragments, amounting to 100 kg total weight, covered an area of 72 square kilometres. That makes the Tamdakht meteorite the most significant meteorite strike in the history of Morocco to date.
Cook Islands / 2 Dollars 2016 / Silver .999 / 1/2 oz. / 38.61 mm / Antique-Finish / Mintage: 2500 pcs.
Just a few years ago, inserting a rock fragment into a coin was deemed innovative. Today it takes more than that to draw attention to a numismatic creation. For the Cook Islands, Coin Invest Trust has designed the “Tamdakht Meteorite Strike” as an intentional overstrike, which lets the Antique-Finish surface appear like a crater lined with cracks. The breakthrough looks like the impact spot of the celestial object, rendering each of the 2500 coins of the limited edition unique.
This coin was minted by B. H. Mayer’s Kunstprägeanstalt, Munich.
An especially vivid impression of this remarkable coin conveys this Coin Invest Trust film.
Please find more information on the coin here.
This is the website of Coin Invest Trust.