Seemingly already looking well past even Christmas at this stage and towards valentines, the New Zealand Mint has already released the 2017 installment in their very popular Love is Precious silver coin series.
Where previous years have seen the coins feature peafowls, hummingbirds and swans the 2017 edition to the Love is Precious series depicts a lavishly coloured pair of lovebirds. Lovebirds are known for forming very strong monogamous pair bonds with their mate. Paired birds generally pair for life and can often be found sitting together and lovingly grooming each other.
2017 Love is Precious 1oz Silver Coin Reverse
The reverse of the 2017 Love is Precious – Lovebirds silver coin features a pair of lovebirds sitting, facing each other, on a branch with their beaks gently touching each other. They are surrounded by an array of colourful flowers of yellow, pink, blue, red and green. The birds, flowers and leaves are all colourized. Between the two lovers is set a single sparkling red heart-shaped cubic zirconia. Surrounding this touching scene is engraved an ornate floral border with the words “LOVE IS PRECIOUS” at the bottom. The only other text is the customary “1oz 999 FINE SILVER” discreetly nestled amongst the flower bed just above the coin's title.
2017 Silver 1oz Coin Obverse
The obverse is well familiar to collectors of New Zealand Mint coins, as it is the standard obverse design of their collector's coins. The Ian Rank-Broadley effigy of HM Queen Elizabeth II anchors the obverse side with the legend surrounding the portrait along the rim in a clockwise direction. The compulsory inscriptions read : “ELIZABETH II”, “NIUE”, “TWO DOLLARS” and “2017”, describing the ruler, country of issue, denomination and date of issue.
2017 Love is Precious 1oz Silver Coin in Box
To really drive the love theme all the way home the coin is shipped in a silver blue velvet lined presentation case. To be honest it is a nice touch and speaks to the New Zealand Mint's usual standard of personalizing the presentation of their coins. It would have been very easy , after all, to simply stick the coin in a branded clamshell case and leave things there(as so many mint's tend to do).
The 40mm(1.5748 inch) coin is struck from pure 999 Fine silver with a weight of 1oz. The limited mintage of 5000 coins is not expected to last very long as previous issues in the series have sold out at the mint with time to spare. The coin fits in nicely with the rest of the series, especially from the 2015(peafowl) edition onwards. Not only that but it makes for a lovely standalone piece in it's own right as well. The coin is being made available via the New Zealand Mint's website for US$85.00 each or you can contact your usual international coin dealer to obtain one for you.
