Numiscollect continues to showcase the planets ecosystems with a numismatic look at the vibrant world of the coral reef

The natural wonders of our planet have been a fertile breeding ground for some fine coins over recent years featuring geological wonders, amazing creatures, and the surrounding solar system. One of those has been Numiscollect’s ‘Our Wonderful Earth Ecosystems’ range, and as you can tell from the accurate title, it’s all about the wonderful ecosystems that exist all around our stunning planet.

The series debuted in 2020 with Polar, and continued with the 2021 Rainforest, and 2022 Desert. There was no release in 2023, but the series comes roaring back with Coral Reef, perhaps the most vibrant ecosystems on Earth. The signature design element of this series remains. It’s a two-ounce coin with a standard crown diameter of 38.61, so effectively a piedfort, and that increased thickness is used to great effect, for a change. Here, the edge is coloured to suit the ecosystem, in this case, a bright coral red.

The design features a small coloured segment, complete with an image of Earth pointed at the most prominent place where the reef ecosystems exist. The rest is cleanly struck to a proof finish, but with many elements also richly coloured. The scene is of an underwater reef, positively teeming with life, from the corals, to a shark. It’s nicely layered with a good sense of depth.

The obverse is the basic, but attractive, national shield of Palau, a Micronesian island state with its own extensive reef system, and which created the world’s first shark sanctuary, since joined by others in the region to cover an incredible 5,200,000 km2. The coin comes boxed with a CoA, and has a mintage of 499 pieces. Available to order from today.