Niue has operated as a licensing vehicle for novelty bullion issues for decades, with the New Zealand government handling its foreign affairs and the island's GDP depending substantially on coin program revenues. The S 699.001 was an Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) experimental electric locomotive, a single prototype built in 1954 that never entered series production — making it an odd subject for a coin that will almost certainly outsell any documentation of the locomotive itself.
Niue has operated as a licensing vehicle for novelty bullion issues for decades, with the New Zealand government handling its foreign affairs and the island's GDP depending substantially on coin program revenues. The S 699.001 was an Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) experimental electric locomotive, a single prototype built in 1954 that never entered series production — making it an odd subject for a coin that will almost certainly outsell any documentation of the locomotive itself.