Numiscollects Royal Delft inset silver coin series continues with the Indian Peacock

Of the thirty-two earthenware factories established in the 17th century in Delft outside Rotterdam, only Koninklijke Porceleyne Fles, also known as Royal Delft is still in operation. Indeed, it’s been churning out porcelain continuously for over 350 years and does so today with a wide range of porcelain products at premium prices. Their designs turn up on many different products, so it’s no surprise that they’ve eventually found their way onto a modern numismatic range.

Appropriately enough, it was Dutch coin producer Numiscollect that took up the challenge two years ago and released Voc Batavia, a porcelain adorned coin celebrating the Dutch East India Company that traded around the globe and helped bring back the Chinese porcelain that was the inspiration for the growth in Dutch production back in the 1650’s. Last year saw the launch of the second coin depicting another Dutch legend, this time of the art world, old one-ear himself, Vincent Willem van Gogh.

Third time out and the link is less obvious, the subject of choice being Pavo Christatus, the Indian Peacock, a bird that does have some links to the region. It’s also the first time that CIT’s brilliant SmartMinting technology has been applied to the range and its influence on the design is clear to see in the images here. Relief levels are vastly greater than previous issues and also show some abrupt changes in prominence (the difference between the high and low parts of the design) that maintain plenty of detail. The peacock and surrounding flora fit the coin face extremely well, wrapping around the element of the coin most likely to divide opinion, the Delft porcelain insert. Half-spherical in shape, the insert is hand-finished and thus unique for every one of the 999 coins being minted. The insert is a clear nod to Royal Delft collectors and previous issues appear to have sold extremely well.

The obverse remains as the previous two releases, full of intricate detail around the necessary effigy of Queen Elizabeth II that’s required for Cook Islands issues. A nice touch instead of the bland effigy alone and something we’re seeing more of lately. A coin box containing a Certificate of Authenticity, all wrapped up in a coloured shipper complete the package. Available around February/March next year, these usually debut at a price around €199. Site sponsors PowerCoin and First Coin Company both sell these, although this new one isn’t listed yet.

MINTS DESCRIPTION

Unique concept coin with a real Royal Delft™ earthenware piece inserted. The piece is handmade and hand painted. The motive Peacock  is related to the Netherlands and fits perfectly to Royal Delft™. The bird is painted by Royal Delft painters and a blue stone feather eye inserted.

The peafowl include two Asiatic bird species (the blue or Indian peafowl originally of India and Sri Lanka and the green peafowl of Myanmar, Indochina, and Java) and one African species (the Congo peafowl native only to the Congo Basin) of birds in the genera Pavo and Afropavo of the Phasianidae family, the pheasants and their allies, known for the male’s piercing call and, among the Asiatic species, his extravagant eye-spotted tail covert feathers which he displays as part of a courtship ritual. The term peacock is properly reserved for the male; the female is known as a peahen, and the immature offspring are sometimes called peachicks.