2 Dollars - Elizabeth II Year of the Horse

Niue's legal tender coinage program is essentially a licensing arrangement — the island issues coins it will never circulate, backed by New Zealand dollar reserves, as a revenue mechanism for the government. The Year of the Horse issue sits within a broader Chinese lunar calendar series produced for the collector market, almost entirely absorbed by buyers in mainland China, Hong Kong, and the diaspora. The 2014 horse year marked the first since 1954 that it fell during a Chinese New Year period beginning in late January rather than February.