The Helvetic Mint has created a 3-dimensional diamond-shaped coin in silver for Niue. Each of the limited mintage satinated .999 fine silver $2 Diamond coins has its serial number etched on one of the coin’s facets.
Images courtesy of the Helvetic Mint.
A tiny mint in Switzerland is on the cutting edge of technology with its latest release.
The Helvetic Mint, a private company that calls itself “the coin factory,” has released a three-dimensional diamond-shaped coin.
The upper portion of Niue’s 2016 .999 fine silver $2 coin has 32 facets plus the “table” bearing the Ian Rank-Broadley effigy of Queen Elizabeth II, and 24 lower facets. A real diamond (0.1-carat Top Wesselton Si1 Brilliant Cut) is attached to the coin as well.
The coin was released publicly on June 6, with delivery to clients the following week.
Each coin has a lasered serial number on a lower facet and the matching number on the certificate of authenticity. The diamond coin is presented in a special hexagonal wooden box with LED light inside.
The Helvetic Mint’s Sabine Meyer developed the project for one year, with actual technical production requiring six months to meet the technical challenge, she said.
“We are a small company working with traditional and modern skills, but extremely creative and always interested to develop technical [skills],” she said.
The coin is struck from one solid piece of silver.
The most challenging part of striking the coin was to create and maintain the pinpoint sharp tip of the diamond-shaped coin and the sharp edges of the facets. It required a very slow increase to striking pressure, Meyer said.
She could not disclose the number of collars required to strike the multifaceted coin, calling it a “technical secret,” but obviously it was more than for a standard (mostly) flat coin.
Once the coins were struck, they were satinated (with the application of an undisclosed substance to give the coins their satiny look), which also threatened to compromise the sharpness of the facet edges, Meyer said.
The coin weighs 44 grams and measures 26 millimeters in diameter at its widest point and 17 millimeters in height.
It has a mintage of 222 pieces.
No United States distributor was named by press time June 8.
To learn more about the collector coin, visit the Helvetic Mint website.
Sursa informaţiilor CoinWorld.
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