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2 Dollars - Elizabeth II Qi Lin and Unicorn
| Issuer | Tuvalu |
|---|---|
| Year | 2018 |
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| Engraver(s) | Obverse: Ian Rank-Broadley Reverse: Ing Ing Jong |
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| Obverse lettering | QUEEN ELIZABETH II IRB 2oz 9999 SILVER 2018 TUVALU 2 DOLLARS |
| Reverse description | The reverse features a finely detailed depiction of the Qi Lin, the auspicious creature of Chinese mythology, rendered with an equine body covered in fish-like scales and bearing a single horn projecting from its forehead — an attribute responsible for its identification as the Chinese unicorn. Opposite the Qi Lin, a Western unicorn is portrayed in the classical tradition, with a spiralling alicorn and flowing mane, evoking representations of the creature from antiquity including those associated with the Indus Valley Civilization. The two mythological beings are shown in confronting or complementary composition, underscoring the thematic pairing of Eastern and Western unicorn iconography. The engraver's initials IJ appear in the field. Inscriptions include the Chinese characters 麒麟 and the English word UNICORN. |
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| Additional information |
Tuvalu's legal tender coinage has been issued under Australian licensing arrangements since independence in 1978, with the Perth Mint producing the vast majority of its collector issues. This piece belongs to a series pairing the Scottish unicorn — one of the two heraldic supporters of the British royal arms — with the qilin, the chimeric creature from Chinese cosmological tradition sometimes rendered in Western sources as a unicorn cognate, though the two share no genuine mythological lineage.
The .9999 fineness places it among Perth's higher-purity issues, a specification the mint adopted aggressively for bullion and semi-numismatic products from the 2010s onward to compete directly with the Royal Canadian Mint's fine silver output.