Cook Islands – 2022 – 20 Dollars – Zeus

Description

This is the 5^th edition in our successful “Spiritual Art” series dedicated to the famous Zeus. Zeus is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion. He was respected as an allfather who was chief of the gods, who rules from Mount Olympus. His name is cognate with his Roman equivalent Jupiter. He was regarded as the sender of thunder and lightning, rain, and winds, and his traditional weapon was the thunderbolt. This stunning coin is based on the Statue of Zeus which was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. This was a giant seated figure, about 12.4 m (41 ft) tall, made by the Greek sculptor Phidias around 435 BC at the sanctuary of Olympia, Greece, and erected in the Temple of Zeus. Zeus sat on a painted cedarwood throne ornamented with ebony, ivory, gold, and precious stones.

The statue was lost and destroyed during the 5th century AD. Details of its form are known only from ancient Greek descriptions and representations on coins. Thanks to the enhanced smartminting® technique you can now find Zeus on a special shaped fully gilded ultra-high relief 3 oz silver piece. It is individually numbered and limited to only 501 pieces world-wide.