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5 Dollars - Charles III Pompeii
| Issuer | Niue |
|---|---|
| Year | 2023 |
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| Shape | Round |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | A dramatic, deeply struck polychrome composition depicts the catastrophic eruption of Mount Vesuvius over the ancient city of Pompeii. In the upper field, the volcano erupts violently, its summit glowing with vivid red and orange coloured lava flows that cascade down the mountainside in branching streams of coloured enamel against a blackened ground. To the upper right, an aerial relief rendering of Pompeii's dense urban grid of streets and structures is visible, partially engulfed by the advancing pyroclastic destruction. In the lower foreground, a cluster of contorted human faces emerges in high relief from the darkened field, evoking the victims preserved by volcanic ash, their expressions conveying anguish and terror. The legend POMPEII arcs along the upper border and LOST WORLD CITIES is inscribed along the lower border, both within the coin's reeded inner rim. |
| Reverse script | Latin |
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| Additional information |
Pompeii's eruption in 79 AD buried the city under several meters of volcanic material, but it was the 1748 Bourbon excavations under Charles VII of Naples — later Charles III of Spain — that turned the site into the obsession it remains today. He personally directed early digs and removed significant finds to his royal palace at Portici, establishing what became the nucleus of the Naples Archaeological Museum collection.
Niue has issued dozens of collector pieces under agreements that effectively lease its sovereign issuing authority to foreign mints, a practice common among small Pacific island nations since the 1990s.