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Modern Numismatics
Louis Golino has been a collector of American and world coins since childhood and has written about coins since 2009. He writes about modern coins and other numismatic issues for Coin World. He is a founding member of the Modern Coin Forum.
Mars Meteorite Coins Landing Soon
Right on the heels of the new Mercury coin I discussed
recently, there is another issue coming soon about Mars that was made by the
Mint of Poland.
First Coin Company (www.firstcoincompany.com) in California is the official USA and worldwide distributor for a new Niue legal tender coin called "Martian Meteorite NWA 6963," which comes in two sizes.
There is a $1, 1 oz. silver coin, which has a mintage of 500
pieces, and a $50, silver kilo coin with a mintage of a mere 99 coins. Both are
produced with a premium, handmade antique silver finish and struck in high
relief and of course come in an attractive wooden display box.
The design features a stunning color image of Mars and rock
formations typical of the planet.
The 1 oz. version is being sold on a pre-order basis for
$219.90, and the kilo is priced at $2,749.90, but the company is accepting best
offers on the larger coin. Or you can
get $650 off the kilo coin with the code 7SKU.
All orders ship free worldwide and if you are assessed any
import duties or taxes, those will be refunded by First Coin Company. The June is expected to be available to ship in
June.
The most exciting part in addition to the design, which
depicts Mars, the red planet, is that these coins include fragments of NWA 6963,
which is a meteorite that came from Mars. There is a separate certificate for
the meteorite fragment.
A Martian meteorite, or shergottite, is a rock that formed
on the planet Mars and was then ejected from Mars by the impact of an asteroid
or comet and finally landed on the Earth.
NWA stands for Northwest Africa, which is where this particular
meteorite was found. According to the Meteorological
Bulletin: “In September, 2011, a Moroccan meteorite hunter found the first
pieces of NWA 6963 and sold it to AHabibi without giving the exact provenance.
The hunter continued collecting pieces in the same area for about 6 months. In
mid-May, 2012, the NWA 6963 locality, near the river Oued Touflit, became
widely known and hundreds of meteorite hunters went to the area searching for
more pieces. Pieces ranging from 100 to 700 g have been recovered, as well as a
few small pieces (3-10 g), most of them are broken and partially covered by a
thin fusion crust. The total mass may be as much as 8-10 kg.”
Mars is the second-smallest planet in our solar system after
Mercury and was named for the god of war. The iron oxide on its surface gives
it a reddish appearance. The planet also has seasonal cycles similar to those
of the earth, and like in earth its seasons are produced through tilts.
The timing of the release of these coins is excellent as
Mars has been in the news a lot recently. In addition to the current plan for
volunteers to at some point go to Mars and live there for the rest of their
lives and last year's hit movie with Matt Damon, The Martian, which won Academy
Awards, there is brand-new research about the surface of Mars. 3.4 billion
years ago when a large asteroid hit the planet, it triggered tsunamis that
covered several hundred thousand square miles of the planet with water that has
been frozen in the years since then.