The Aztec Five Suns kick of Numiscollect’s ambitious new coin series, ‘Ages of Man – Creation of World’

We’ve been very pleased to see the mythology genre turn away from an over reliance on the usual Greek, Roman and Egyptian legends, towards a more expansive look at the world’s ancient tales. One of the benefits of that has been a greater look at the old Mesoamerican cultures for inspiration, like the Aztecs and the Inca, each very distinctive in appearance from the European ones.

The Five Suns legend from Aztec history, is one of creation and destruction. Postulating the theory that the current age of man was the fifth, it told the story of the four previous cycles, or ‘Suns’, and the creation of the latest. The Aztecs considered themselves ‘the People of the Sun’, and pleasing it was seen as foundational to their civilisation. The flow of sacrificial animals and people was to give the sun tlaxcaltiliztli (“nourishment”) and has become inextricably linked with them, making bloody tales of mass sacrifices the stuff of modern legend.

Numiscollect’s latest taps into that tale for its first Ages of Man coin. Like this producers ‘Archaeology & Symbolism’ series, this is an exquisite design, packed from centre to edge with fine detail enhanced by CIT/BHM’s superb Smartminting technology. Each of the five outer segments depicts a scene from the five cycles, while the centre shows us the first gods (Sun & Moon), around which sit the four gods from each wind direction. This area sits higher than the surrounding sements and the coin surface ramps down from there to the rim.

A very pretty release and one that’s had much attention to detail lavished upon it. This is a three-ounce coin with a nice 65.0 mm diameter – big enough to see that detail with the naked eye. Two variants are on offer, something that Numiscollect has increasingly employed of late. The key version is antique finished and has a mintage of 333, while a gilded variant is capped at just 99. Both look excellent and both should be available to pre-order now.

ANTIQUED RANTIQUED O
GILDED OGILDED R

AZTEC FIVE SUNS

Below is an image carousel with close-ups of the five segments, each representing one of the five suns in Aztec mythology. You can see the copious amounts of fine detail present in each of the segments, with a consistent layout and style. A fine example of Smartminting technical prowess.

SPECIFICATION
DENOMINATION $20 (Palau) $20 (Palau)
COMPOSITION 0.999 silver 0.999 silver
WEIGHT 93.3 grams 93.3 grams
DIMENSIONS 65.0 mm 65.0 mm
FINISH Antique Gilded
MODIFICATIONS Smartminting, high-relief Smartminting, high-relief
MINTAGE 333 99
BOX / C.O.A. Yes / Yes Yes / Yes