CIT Winter Launch: Legendary gold disc of an Incan Sun God springs back to life in miniature form

There’s still a relative dearth of coins featuring the old Mesoamerican cultures, which is a shame, because everything from their legends and iconography, to their architecture, is striking and fascinating. Numiscollect did an excellent Aztec Calendar coin a couple of years ago, but there’s relatively little for the equally famous Incan culture.

This new one-ounce gilded silver release from CIT brings to life the mystical Incan Sun God disc. Sadly, and unlike the Aztec Calendar Stone, the Incan Sun Disc is no longer in existence, as far as we know. Nevertheless, the style and look is extrapolated from other artifacts and descriptions, and its existence is generally accepted as factual. There’s a great history and expedition HERE.

The coin employs Smartminting to give us a raised central dome covered with detailed relief, surrounded by more of the same. A gorgeous piece, enhanced by the old-style strike to the obverse. The presentation looks great and as this is one of the least expensive of CIT’s Winter Launch range, a solid thumbs up from me.

MINTS DESCRIPTION

The gold sun disc was one of the most sacred and valuable artifacts of the Inca. Legend states that it came from the sky and was recovered from Lake Titicaca. It was three feet wide, made of rare translucent gold and was said to have magical powers. The Inca believed it could heal any injury, stop time, and prevent or even start earthquakes. The Inca placed it inside their Temple of the Sun, in the Peruvian city of Cusco and used it to receive information directly from the Sun God, Tiki Viracocha, the Universal Mind at the center of the galaxy.

In 1532 the Spanish Conquistadors landed in Peru and destroyed the temple. The Inca realized that they were in big trouble and that these Spaniards were after their gold. Would they hide their dearest treasure or were they too late? That’s the big question. The golden disc has many theories as to how it went missing. The most popular theory of historians is that it was saved by the Inca people and taken to another Inca city. That city, Gran Paititi, is also coincidently missing today. It’s rumored to sit high up in the Andes at an elevation of 14,000 feet at the highest levels of Inca civilization.

Others say it was moved to Lake Titicaca where it remained hidden beneath the waters, in a subterranean temple. Another theory is that this artifact was melted and shipped to Spain. So even today, the legends lives on.

SPECIFICATION
DENOMINATION $5 Palau
COMPOSITION 0.999 silver
WEIGHT 31.1 grams
DIMENSIONS 38.61 mm
FINISH Silk gilded
MODIFICATIONS Ultra high-relief, Smartminting
MINTAGE 2,021
BOX / C.O.A. Yes / Yes