Animal Champions

The Czech Mint dedicated the last silver coin embellished with a patina from the cycle Animal Champions to sharks - perfect predators with the most developed senses in the world.

Sharks have ruled the oceans and seas for more than 300 million years, which means they appeared 100 million years before dinosaurs. They adapted perfectly to their environment in the earliest times, therefore, their appearance did not have to evolve further. The perfect combination of senses gives them the upper hand over all other marine animals. While one perceives the environment through the five senses, sharks have eight - sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell, sideline, sensory cavities and so-called Lorenzini ampoules. Rumors of a shark's sense of smell tend to be exaggerated, but even so, these fish can catch the smell of a single drop of blood over a mile and a half. However, the real shark miracle is Lorenzini's ampoules which record even slight changes in the electric field. This is created by all animals, and the shark is able to find its prey, even if it is hidden in the sand or in the dark.

The reverse side of the coin from the workshop of medal maker David Kružliak presents a shark with a dorsal fin cutting through the surface and bared teeth. It is not without interest that the front row of worn and missing shark teeth is gradually being replaced by other rows with new sharp teeth, while there can be up to fifteen of them in a row and the shark will change tens of thousands of teeth in its lifetime. The composition of the reverse side is supplemented with the silhouette of another fish floating in the depths, together with the Latin name of the superorder of sharks SELACHIMORPHA. The obverse side, which is common to the entire animal cycle, presents a pair of natural scenery and the necessary elements of the island of Niue, which grants the Czech Mint a foreign license to issue its own commemorative coins. These are the profile and name of Queen Elizabeth II, the nominal value of 1 DOLLAR (NZD) and the year of issue 2020.

The spectacular packaging of the coin takes the form of a pop-up book, in which you will find photographs and Czech-English text describing the record characteristics of sharks. Don't forget that you can store a collection of coins from the Animal Champions cycle in a practical collector's box.