Niue has become one of the more prolific licensing platforms in modern numismatics, issuing commemorative gold under agreements that have little to do with the island's 1,600 residents and everything to do with New Zealand's administrative arrangements giving it treaty access to international minting markets. This Manhattan Project piece was released as part of a broader series commemorating moments in nuclear history, timed loosely around the 72nd anniversary of the Trinity test and the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The project it commemorates consumed roughly 2 billion USD in 1940s money, employed 130,000 people across facilities in Oak Ridge, Hanford, and Los Alamos, and remained so compartmentalized that most workers had no idea what they were building.
Niue has become one of the more prolific licensing platforms in modern numismatics, issuing commemorative gold under agreements that have little to do with the island's 1,600 residents and everything to do with New Zealand's administrative arrangements giving it treaty access to international minting markets. This Manhattan Project piece was released as part of a broader series commemorating moments in nuclear history, timed loosely around the 72nd anniversary of the Trinity test and the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The project it commemorates consumed roughly 2 billion USD in 1940s money, employed 130,000 people across facilities in Oak Ridge, Hanford, and Los Alamos, and remained so compartmentalized that most workers had no idea what they were building.