Bee coins have always enjoyed a high standard of design, and Powercoin’s first ‘Bionic Genesis’ issue keeps it up

Powercoin’s first issue of the year is also the debut issue in the Rome-based producer’s latest series, called ‘Bionic Genesis’. The increasingly popular theme of fusing nature and technology continues here, with Powercoin themselves having visited the genre with its ‘Clockwork Evolution‘, and ‘Cyborg Revolution‘ ranges, both of which had three issues in them.

The coin utilises that popular honeycomb imagery, but here, there’s a technological twist to it, with the cells having an artificial finish to them. The ‘active’ cells are coloured in a clean white finish, and there’s an enamel ‘honey’ dripping from some of them. It’s a very effective look, with great contrast. The gilded bees are a technological construct, literally one of the bionic bees that have been postulated as a back-up in case the collapse in the number and health of natural bee colonies falls further. Fortunately, the bee population seems to be rising outside of the United States, where overly intensive use of chemical pesticides is still prevalent.

The obverse of the coin also has a honeycomb hive pattern, but on this face, the perspective is as seen through a fisheye lens, in the centre of which sits the Public Seal of Niue. Bees actually have five eyes, can’t see red clearly, and view the world in slow-motion, low-resolution. A small bee silhouette, finished in a textured gilding, covers a single cell. Although we don’t have images at present, each of the 499 coins will come presented in a box, with a COA. A fine issue, that continues numismatics very high standard of depicting these fascinating, and critically important creatures. Available to order now, they should ship around the end of next month.