As I may have mentioned a few times, or maybe more, I have been a coin collector since I was kid. My dad got me interested in coin collecting and investing in precious metals like silver and gold. I'm grateful to my father until this very day for getting me into the hobby, as it can be not only rewarding, but lucrative if you make wise investments. It's also easy to make bad moves based solely on passion for your collection... I've done that a more than a few times over the years!
I frequently search precious metal dealers websites for something new that catches my interest. A couple days ago I shared the Coca-Cola gold bottlecap coin, but I very nearly published about this one first. Both are produced by the island nation of Niue, they have made many commemorative coins over the years. However, they have been really innovative recently producing some items that are remarkably beautiful.
This coin really caught my eye, first off it's gold, and I love gold coins. But the design and highlighting done with platinum really makes it pretty. This coin is the Chess Queen.
Images from APMEX.com
About the coin:
From numista.com
The obverse (front) of the coin has King Charles on there, and to be honest that is the one thing I don't really like. Nothing personal against him, but the coins where they put the Niue coat of arms are nicer in my opinion. This coin is one Troy ounce of pure gold with platinum plated highlights. The queen on the reverse (back) of the coin is beautiful work and the platinum really brings her to life.
This is going to be a very rare coin as only 99 will be minted. The asking price is outside of my current budget, unfortunately, at $4,395. At the moment the spot price of gold is $3,364, so the premium on this coin is over $1,000 which is pretty steep. This could turn out to be a good investment, or it might not depending on consumer demand. Time will tell...
It's too bad they didn't also produce smaller versions that would be more affordable like the Coca-Cola cap. But such is life! I won't be buying one, that much is a certainty even though I think it's awesome. They did make a version in just plain silver, but it just isn't the same.
APMEX.com
The asking price on the silver version is $150, but I wouldn't pay that much personally. They're producing 999 of these, in case you're interested. It's a hard pass for me.
Chess
stauntoncastle.com
Chess is a game of strategy that I think most of us are familiar with and played at one time or another. I really haven't played since I was in high school, and it's been a few years... My skills are rusty to say the least. What I really didn't know was the history behind the game, that is until I looked in up on Wikipedia. It's amazing how much information is available at our fingertips, no trip to the library needed!
The game in it's current form has been around since roughly the year 1475 AD. However, it has it's origins from a more ancient game from India called chaturanga, that originated in sixth century AD. Not all of the rules are completely understood from the old game, but it did inspire many other games throughout the world including chess. I added a Wikipedia link in the references if you want to learn more about the old game, and the one about chess as well if you have no idea idea what chess is.
By far, the most powerful piece in the game is the queen and the weakest the king. One of the oldest strategies in history is one known as the queen's gambit. It's a strategy used by the white team that has the first move and appears to sacrifice a pawn to the black team. However, should the black team take the white pawn it puts them at a disadvantage. As it turns out, this was first described in the year 1490 AD. Within 15 years of the game being around, and is also called the Aleppo gambit as a fellow by the name of Phillip Stamma of Aleppo first described it.
The game ends in either one team putting the opposing king in checkmate with no moves available without being captured or in stalemate (tie). I'm sure there are several chess pros here on Hive, and they could tell you much more than I could ever dream about the strategies of the game. But I learned something today while researching, so the day was not wasted.
That will wrap up my post for this Wednesday. I hope you enjoyed it and liked the coin as much as I do. Please feel free to leave any comments or questions below and as always, thank you for all of your support. I appreciate all of the awesome members of our Hive community. Have a great day!
References:
https://www.apmex.com/product/311677/2025-niue-1-oz-gold-chess-queen-proof-with-box-coa
https://www.apmex.com/product/311678/2025-niue-1-oz-silver-chess-queen-black-proof-with-box-coa
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/exonumia455923.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen's_Gambit
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chess
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaturanga
Disclaimer:
I am not a financial planner and this isn't financial advice. Please always do your own research before investing your money. You worked hard enough to earn it!
The Coca-Cola name is the property of the Coca-Cola Corporation.
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