A second high-end meteorite coin this week comes from old hand MCI-Mint in Germany. Like the three-ounce coin released by Numiscollect earlier this week, this is one of the bigger releases in this genre, coming in at a full five-ounces of fine antiqued silver, not the first time MCI have gone so large having previously launched a domed coin like this with a moon meteorite theme.

The big selling point for this coin, outside of its obvious scarcity as a domed strike of this size, is the sheer rarity of the meteorite embedded within it. North West Africa 7325 is completely unique on Earth. The meteorite is an achondrite, a type that only comes from planets or large asteroids, and its composition strongly indicates its origin as being Mercury, a comparison possible because of the excellent work being done by the Messenger spacecraft, currently orbiting the planet closest to the Sun. Some recent scientific papers are questioning this, mainly because the meteorites staggering age of 4.56 Billion years would put it around the formation of Mercury itself, a tumultuous time of which the meteorite shows little damage, but even those aren’t ruling its origin out.

As with the previous entrant in this series from MCI, the coin is a truly domed strike, not flat on the obverse side, and quite an achievement for its size. Depicting Mercury’s battered planetary surface, embedded within which is a fragment of this rare meteorite, it’s a really nice piece and a fine accompaniment to the Moon release. The mintage also remains at just 175 pieces and the price at a not insubstantial €999, hardly surprising given the rarity of the meteorite fragment. Well packaged with a Certificate of Authenticity, the coin is available to order now.

MINTS DESCRIPTION

Sometimes something really mysterious from outer space is found on earth. This is the case of the „Green Meteorite“ NWA 7325, named so because of the green crystals embedded in the plutonic rock, found 2012 in Morocco. This thing was so very different from any other meteorites that only almost criminological reasoning could solve the mystery. After ruling out almost all of the celestial bodies of our solar system only one candidate for the supposed origin of this meteorite left: the Mercury, this tiny, poorly explored planet nearest to our sun. This makes this rock from space one of the rarest finds of recent years. A year later a very similar meteorite was purchased by a collector at the famous Meteorite Show in the french town of Enisheim, also coming from North Africa, now named NWA 8409. Later research led to the conclusion that this is another piece of the same meteoroid, that is both NWA 7325 and 8409 were forming one body prior to the impact on earth.

In the year 2015 MCI Mint created the first domed 5 ounce fine silver meteorite coin depicting the surface of the moon and containing a piece of the lunar meteorite NWA 8599. The follwer in 2016, also domed, also a 5 ounce coin, shows the meteor impact craters of planet Mercury. Again every coin is numbered at the edge. The mintage is only 175 pieces. Due to the extreme rarity of Mercury meteorites the coin contains either a piece of NWA 7325 or NWA 8409. The extra meteorite certificate will tell the collector which one he purchased. The coin again comes in a niece wooden box with colored slipcase.

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SPECIFICATION

DENOMINATION COMPOSITION WEIGHT DIAMETER FINISH MINTAGE BOX / COA
5,000 FRANCS CFA 0.999 SILVER 155.5 g (5oz) 60.15 mm ANTIQUE 175 YES / YES