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5 Dollars - Elizabeth II Waldseemüller
| Issuer | Cook Islands |
|---|---|
| Year | 2018 |
| Type | Non-circulating coin |
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|---|---|
| Obverse script | Latin |
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| Reverse description | A highly detailed color reproduction of the celebrated Waldseemüller world map of 1507 — the Universalis Cosmographia — is displayed in full across the rectangular field, rendered in sepia tones against a textured parchment-effect background with deliberately distressed, irregular edges evoking aged paper. The map, presented in a heart-shaped cordiform projection, depicts the known world including the newly named continent of America, with portrait medallions of Ptolemy and Amerigo Vespucci visible at the upper corners. The legend WALDSEEMÜLLER appears in gothic script at the upper left of the field, while UNIVERSALIS COSMOGRAPHIA ANNO 1507 is inscribed in gothic lettering along the lower left and HISTORICAL MAPS along the lower right. |
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| Additional information |
The Waldseemüller map of 1507 holds a specific claim no other document can make: it is the first known cartographic work to use the name "America." Martin Waldseemüller, a German cartographer working in Saint-Dié-des-Vosges, based the name on Amerigo Vespucci's published accounts of the New World voyages, apparently unaware that Vespucci himself had limited direct role in the expeditions being described. Waldseemüller later had misgivings and attempted to remove the name from subsequent editions — but it had already taken hold.
The original 1507 print run was roughly 1,000 copies. Only one complete example survives, purchased by the Library of Congress in 2003 for $10 million.