5 Dollars - Elizabeth II Black Madonna of Częstochowa

Niue has become the dominant issuer of novelty bimetallic coinage for the collector market, and this piece fits squarely into that commercial program. The wood insert references the darkened panel of the original icon housed at Jasna Góra monastery in Częstochowa, Poland — a painting venerated since at least the 14th century and attributed in Catholic tradition to Saint Luke, though art historians date it considerably later. The monastery withstood a Swedish siege in 1655 that Polish national memory treats as a turning point in the Second Northern War.