No doubt there will be many coins featuring this years Summer Olympics, a couple have already surfaced, but the New Zealand Post have jumped in with a pair of their own and look to have done a good job. Struck in fine silver or fine gold, both with some selective colouring (more so on the silver), they celebrate the achievements of the gold winning athletes from New Zealand from the many prior Olympics.

The silver weighs in at an ounce, and has some superb design elements within it, especially towards the rim with its symbols of the different events. The central area, made to replicate looking through a window, depicts the classic view of Rio from the sky, with the huge Christ the Redeemer statue in full. The ½oz gold coin has the same design, but loses the colour around the symbols near the rim, strangely weakening the design a little; not something you can say often about colouring on a coin.

Both are well packaged, the gold coming in one of those custom wooden boxes that the NZ Post does from time to time and both will likely be very well struck given it’s being done by the superb BH Mayer mint in Germany. The silver sells for $149.00 NZD, and the gold for $1899.00 NZD. The NZP also has a range of stamps themed similarly for those interested.

The 2016 Summer Olympics officially known as the Games of the XXXI Olympiad, and commonly known as Rio 2016, is a major international multi-sport event in the tradition of the Olympic Games due to take place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 5 to 21 August 2016. Record numbers of countries are participating in a record number of sports. More than 10,500 athletes from 206 National Olympic Committees (NOCs), including first time entrants Kosovo and South Sudan, will take part. With 306 sets of medals, the games will feature 28 Olympic sports — including rugby sevens and golf, which were added by the International Olympic Committee in 2009. These sporting events will take place at 33 venues in the host city and at 5 venues in the cities of São Paulo (Brazil’s largest city), Belo Horizonte, Salvador, Brasília (Brazil’s capital), and Manaus.

These will be the first Summer Olympic Games under the IOC presidency of Thomas Bach. The host city of Rio de Janeiro was announced at the 121st IOC Session held in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 2 October 2009. Rio will become the first South American city to host the Summer Olympics. These will be the first games to be held in a Portuguese-speaking country, the first to be held entirely during the host country’s winter season (the 2000 games began on September 15 – 5 days before the Southern Hemisphere’s vernal equinox), the first since 1968 to be held in Latin America, and the first since 2000 (third overall) to be held in the Southern Hemisphere.

SILVER: The design of this 1oz silver proof coin depicts the journey of our Olympic athletes, from training in New Zealand’s breathtakingly beautiful landscape to their ultimate destination of Rio.

The outer rim features elements of NZOC’s ‘Be the Inspiration’ ribbon, with ten icons representing the sports in which New Zealand has previously won gold medals. The centre of the design features the symbolic Olympic torch and the NZOC logo.

It is housed within an elegant black case featuring imagery from the ‘Be the Inspiration’ campaign, and is limited to just 2,016 worldwide. An individually numbered certificate is included inside.

GOLD: The design of this 1/2oz gold proof coin depicts the journey of our Olympic athletes, from training in New Zealand’s breathtakingly beautiful landscape to their ultimate destination of Rio.

The outer rim features elements of NZOC’s ‘Be the Inspiration’ ribbon, with ten icons representing the sports in which New Zealand has previously won gold medals. The centre of the design features the symbolic Olympic torch and the NZOC logo.

It is housed within a laser-engraved rimu box featuring the NZOC logo, and is limited to only 250 worldwide. An individually numbered certificate is included inside.

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