02 April 2022
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Pegasos, one of the most commonly depicted creatures on Greek coinage, features on a beautifully produced Cook Islands coin, created by CIT.
The design of the coin was inspired by the staters of the city of Corinth and depicts a soaring Pegasos to the left; below C-I for Cook Islands.
A history of Pegasos
Pegasos is one of the most commonly depicted creatures on Greek coinage.
And there’s a good reason for it: the motif of the Pegasos was featured on coins from Corinth. And this city, located on the Isthmus named after Corinth, was a trading center that founded numerous colonies.
All the colonies of Corinth adopted the currency of their mother city: staters depicting a Pegasos. To show where a “Corinthian” stater came from, the colonies put the first letter of their city’s name on the obverse, directly below the Pegasos. Thus, CIT’s designers followed an ancient Greek tradition when they decided to abbreviate the issuing nation as “CI” for Cook Islands and to place this inscription below the Pegasos.
The reason why Corinth attached such an importance to the Pegasos is that it was said to have been tamed in this very city.
With the help of the goddess Athena, the Corinthian hero Bellerophon threw a bridle over the winged stallion Pegasos in order to ride him. And therefore, Pegasos carried him through the air when Bellerophon fought the Chimera.
Visit the CIT website at: www.cit.li
Inspired by Greek coinage, CIT developed “Pegasos” – a coin that reinterprets Greek imagery with state-of-the-art technology. The ancient engravers would have been fascinated by the lifelike depiction of the horse taking off for flight.
For the first time, this new issue of the Numismatic Icons series is not only available in silver but also in gold.
To this end, CIT combined the material gold and smartminting® technology with an elaborate antique finish for the very first time. The result are coins of a kind that couldn’t have been more beautiful if the ancient Greeks had created them.
Technical details
- Cook Islands
- 5 Dollars
- Silver .999. 1 oz
- Approx. 33 mm
- Antique finish
- Mintage: 999 pieces
- Special technology: smartminting® (Ultra High Relief)
- B. H. Mayer’s Kunstprägeanstalt, Munich
- Cook Islands
- 250 Dollars
- Gold .9999
- 1 oz
- Approx. 30 mm
- Antique finish
- Mintage: 199 pieces
- Special technology: smartminting® (Ultra High Relief)
- B. H. Mayer’s Kunstprägeanstalt, Munich
Further information about the coin:
https://www.cit.li/coins/pegasos/
https://www.cit.li/coins/pegasos-gold/