Catalog
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| Issuer | Niue |
|---|---|
| Year | 2020 |
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| Value | 1 Dollar |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Central high-relief depiction of a rat seated atop a stack of traditional Chinese cash coins, rendered in fine detail with the animal's whiskers and fur carefully sculpted. A Chinese character for prosperity or wealth appears on the large coin beneath the rat. Seven gilt Chinese cash coins, each with a square central hole, are arranged in an arc around the lower portion of the field, adding a distinctive gold-coloured accent to the otherwise silver composition. The curved legend YEAR OF THE RAT arcs across the upper field, with the date 2020 to the right. |
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| Reverse lettering | YEAR OF THE RAT 2020 |
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| Additional information |
Niue's ongoing lunar series is struck by the New Zealand Mint under licensing arrangements that allow the tiny Pacific island nation — with a population under 2,000 — to generate meaningful revenue through collector coinage it has no domestic infrastructure to produce itself. The Year of the Rat opened the third cycle of the 12-year Chinese zodiac sequence for this series.
The rat holds the first position in the zodiac partly due to a folk story in which it hitched a ride on the ox's back and leaped ahead at the finish line — a detail that made the animal's symbolic association with cunning and opportunism essentially permanent in East Asian tradition.