Mint of Polands beautiful SOS Venice series celebrates a 17th Century Basilica.

This impressive series, barely a  year old, is now enjoying its fifth release. Commemorating some of the fantastic landmarks and art associated with the semi-aquatic city of Venice, the combination of high-relief and very high-quality digital colouring lifts this series above the norm. The designs are normally issued in pairs, one silver and one gold, in other respects identical.

This time we’ve only seen the silver coin, although the mints description does allude to the gold, so we’re going to assume it’s coming. The silver is an ounce in weight, the gold weighing less than a third of that at just 10 grams. Both are tight in mintage, the gold extraordinarily so for its weight at just 40 units. Packaging is good on both versions. The coin features the Basilica di Santa Maria della Salute as painted by Canaletto, with the engraved section featuring the state barge of the old Venetian Doge’s called the Bucentaur.

We have a guide to the whole series and this new coin has now been incorporated into it along with a full description. Head on over here for a good look at this elegant and little known series. This latest coin should be shipping any time now for around €90. Site sponsors Powercoin have them in stock.