5 Dollars Sistine Madonna - 1 of 12

Niue's use of its Cook Islands Treaty monetary arrangement to issue collectible silver has made it one of the more prolific licensing vehicles in modern numismatics — this piece being part of a twelve-coin series reproducing details from Raphael's 1512 altarpiece, originally commissioned for the church of San Sisto in Piacenza. The painting spent over two centuries in that church before Augustus III of Saxony purchased it in 1754 for the Dresden gallery, where it remains.