Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
20 Dollars Ecstasy of Saint Teresa
| Issuer | Republic of Palau |
|---|---|
| Year | 2021 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Silver (.999) |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse presents a detailed high-relief sculptural rendering of Gian Lorenzo Bernini's celebrated marble group the Ecstasy of Saint Teresa, housed in the Cornaro Chapel, Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome. The composition faithfully reproduces the swooning figure of Teresa of Avila supported on clouds, her eyes closed and expression conveying spiritual rapture, while an angel poised above her prepares to pierce her heart with a golden spear. The figures are rendered in brilliant proof cameo relief against a deeply recessed polished field, emphasizing the dramatic Baroque contrasts of the original sculpture. The legend ETERNAL SCULPTURES `ECSTASY OF SAINT TERESA` curves along the upper periphery, with the Roman date MMXXI appearing in the lower field. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | 2021 - Black Proof - 499 |
| Additional information |
Palau has built one of the more aggressive bullion-art programs of any small Pacific issuer, regularly licensing European religious and classical imagery for large-format silver releases aimed squarely at the collector market rather than circulation. This piece references Bernini's 1652 marble sculpture in the Cornaro Chapel, Rome — a work commissioned by Cardinal Federico Cornaro that sparked controversy even in its own century for the ambiguity of its devotional intensity.
At 155.5 g these issues are essentially sculptural objects sold on the secondary market at multiples of melt. Palau's GDP makes any pretense of domestic monetary use implausible.