2022 - Niue 2 NZD Silver Coin Discovery of America - Christopher Columbus - Proof

Discovery of America

The second silver coin of the Czech Mint from the miniseries entitled Discovery of America commemorates the adventures of the italian navigator Christopher Columbus.

In the 15th century, it was generally known that the Earth was round, but even so, there were distorted ideas about it. World maps were by no means complete - the known world of Europe, Africa and Asia then ended with China, as described by the explorer Marco Polo. But the frontiers of human knowledge were about to shift, thanks to a mistake made by an ambitious navigator... Christopher Columbus, Italian who entered the service of the Spanish crown with the hope of discovering a new route to Asia, was an enthusiastic cartographer and navigator but miscalculated the circumference of the Earth. If he had known that his dream India was actually three times further away than he had anticipated, he would never have sailed in the unexplored western direction. The ships would not have carried enough supplies and all his sailors would have died. On 12 October 1492, however, Columbus reached the unknown island, which confirmed his belief that his calculations were correct. He assumed that he had reached the eastern shore of India and therefore called the local inhabitants Indians. But in fact he had discovered the Bahamas. He named the island San Salvador, and from there he made his way from Cuba to the island of Hispaniola, the territory of today's Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Columbus's other voyages across the ocean led, for example, to Jamaica and also to the shores of the real mainland - today's Venezuela and Panama. Columbus discovered a new continent for the Western world, which was quickly colonised by Europeans , yet until his death he was adamant that he had landed on the shores of Asia…

The reverse side of the commemorative coin, which is the work of the medal maker Mgr. Petr Horák, presents a profile portrait of Christopher Columbus. The coin's surface is filled with waves together with three Spanish rocking sailing ships. The waves that surround North and South America can also be found on the obverse side, which is common to the entire series of explorer coins. As the licence of the Czech Mint to issue commemorative coins is granted by the Pacific island of Niue, the obverse side still bears its necessary attributes - the name and portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, the nominal value of 2 DOLLARS (NZD) and the year of issue 2022.

The coin is supplemented with a spectacular booklet that presents Columbus' voyages to America in words and pictures.