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20 Dollars - Elizabeth II Bactrian Cybele Disk
| Issuer | Cook Islands |
|---|---|
| Year | 2021 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 93.3 g |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Latin |
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| Reverse description | Central design depicting the ancient Bactrian Cybele and Nike disk in ultra-high relief, faithfully reproducing the original artifact as discovered at Ai Khanoum, including its characteristic cracks, dents, and surface irregularities. The disk is divided into two circular sections filled with densely engraved archaic symbolic motifs, including stylized eyes, solar symbols, geometric patterns, spirals, and zoomorphic figures rendered in an ancient Central Asian decorative style. The inscription 'AI KHANOUM' appears in the field, along with the date '20 21' and the legend 'CYBELE AND NIKE DISK' identifying the depicted artifact. |
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| Additional information |
The Bactrian Cybele disk coin belongs to a Cook Islands series drawing on ancient syncretic religious iconography from the region stretching between modern Afghanistan and Uzbekistan, where Hellenistic, Persian, and Indian traditions merged following Alexander's eastern campaigns. Cybele — the Phrygian mother goddess absorbed into both Greek and Roman state religion — appears in Bactrian material culture in hybrid forms not found further west, a product of the cultural collision that defined the region's Hellenistic successor kingdoms.
Cook Islands has served as the issuing authority for numerous numismatic programs it has no geographic or historical connection to, a legal arrangement with European minting houses that has been standard practice since the 1970s.