2019 - Niue 1 NZD Silver Coin Inventions of Leonardo da Vinci - Machine Gun - Proof

Inventions of Leonardo da Vinci

The first war machine appears after two flying machines in a mini-series called Inventions of Leonardo da Vinci. The silver coin of the Czech Mint presents Leonardo's machine gun.

Leonardo da Vinci loved life and considered fighting the worst human activity. Yet he has written numerous designs of sophisticated war machines that provided him favour of powerful patrons and sponsors. While cold weapons supported by bows and crossbows ruled the battlefields in the Middle Ages, firearms began to spread in the Renaissance and changed the warfare. Although their power was devastating, they suffered from a number of shortcomings. Probably the biggest was the low rate of fire caused by complicated charging, which took several minutes. Leonardo solved this problem with elegance - placing a number of the main ones in one bundle, thus solving the issue of fast charging and the necessary cooling. Thus the first machine gun appeared. Leonardo did not stay with one proposal and invented a number of variants of his rapid-fire weapon. The most sophisticated one was supposed to consist of three main rotating rows - while the first row was firing, the second row was cooling and the third was charging. If such a weapon was used against the advancing infantry, its effect would be devastating. Fortunately, Leonardo is known as a man who did everything, but rarely finished anything. He did not finish most of his war machines. But perhaps his pacifism might have been more than his inattention. Indeed, when researchers designed his war machines at the end of the 20th century, it turned out to be terrifyingly functional ...

The miniseries was created by medal maker Asamat Baltaev, DiS. The reverse side of the coin presents a drawing of the invention provided with Leonardo notes. The maestro looks down at him from the upper part of the reverse and the English inscription bears MACHINE GUN. The obverse side of the coin is a showcase of all the inventions that will gradually appear in the miniseries – a machine gun, a helicopter, a glider, and a tank. All this is connected with the attributes of the island of Niue, which is the coin issuer. Since the Czech Mint's coins are based on this foreign license, they bear the name and the portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, the nominal value of 1 DOLLAR (NZD) and the year of the issue 2019.

You can store a complete collection of silver coins to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Leonardo's death in a special collector´s box.