"The Hill's Are Alive With The Sound Of Music" ..
Well, maybe not quite, but today's coin has musical design elements and my art has hill elements. Soooo, I am correct in my quote. haha. Today I’m diving back into my recent silver purchase and pulling out another silver round. I randomly reached in and pulled out something interesting today. As a side note, it was nice seeing silver prices pop a little bit today up over 1%. I wonder how long this Run will last. I see the stock market, at least growth stocks are up a little so it makes sense that silver popped a little bit.
Keeping with a recent trend in post themes .. Where I use some sort of artistic backdrop to my photos, today is no different. It’s times like today, when I post my art in another way, that I realize it’s been a while since I’ve actually painted or drew anything. It’s sad and I need to get back into the hobby I enjoy; creating paintings and drawings. I really need to paint or draw sometime soon, but as every artist knows, sometimes inspiration or motivation is limited.
I created this piece almost a year ago and posted about it on October 21, 2020. Destroying I named ‘Oak In The Foothills’. It is a pen and ink drawing that was shaded in with a 5B pencil. I was creating several of these small drawings during my lunch break. It made for a nice way to whine down and relax a little before getting back to work. I spent about 5 to 10 minutes on the actual pen and ink drawing and maybe an additional five or 10 minutes with the shading.
If you’re interested in the process just click the name above in the link will take you to the original post. Or just click on the picture below, the summary photo. That will get you there too.
So what did I pull out of the stack today?
I’ll tell you .. A 2021 1 ounce Tokelau Vivat Humantitas Silver Coin. I was just explaining the other day that I do not have any more airtight capsules and I’m stuck with the flips that most of these coins were sent in. This coin was sent in a capsule! Just the way they all should come in my opinion. Hahaha. I guess I’m thinking of the perfect world. A world without flips.
I randomly picked this coin when I was making my purchase. The funny thing is that this is actually a substitution for what I originally had in my cart. Again these were all purchased from JM Bullion. I originally had a proof like coin in my cart but I waited too long and missed out. I wondered why my cart reflected one less item then I originally had, then I noticed the red writing at the top of the screen saying this coin was removed due to unavailability. Oh well so I went back and picked something else and found the same coin except in BU (Brilliant Uncirculated) condition. That’s fine by me. Would’ve been nice to have the other one, for almost the same cost, but this appears just as nice to me.
I don’t know a whole lot about the series. From what I read it’s a multi year release series for a small pacific ocean nation located all the way out in the middle of nowhere. I googled it and it appears to be a very very very very very very very long plane flight for us living in the US. At least New Jersey. It’s 6995 miles from my doorstep. That’s a pretty long trek. A little shorter maybe from California, and a heck of a lot closer for Australians or those from New Zealand. The nation of Tokelau is comprised of a group of atolls in the south pacific ocean halfway between Hawaii and New Zealand. The further I read the more I found out that this island or territory, is usually accessible by boat only from Samoa. They said the trip can take close to 24 hours! Yikes. I don't like boats that much.
For those of you wondering where this island is after my explanation, below is a screenshot of Google maps showing a pinpoint location of the territory.
The Obverse
The obverse features none only then Queen Elizabeth II. Instead of her bust taking up the entire face of the coin, she is off centered between an almost sandblasted look to the left and a bunch of musical notes to the right. At first when looking at the design, I didn’t realize they were musical notes and it just look like a rough sandy pattern.
After that I started looking closer and noticed that to the left, or backside of the queens bust, is a curved musical keyboard. Also I noticed a small sound wave in the upper left-hand corner and a musical syllabus with the weight of the coin and purity.
The Reverse
On the reverse, the denomination of five dollars and an oversize G Clef immediately stand out. I had to check the website to find out what these other symbols were that sit in a square surrounding that G Clef; they are the 'eighth note', 'common time', 'coda', and 'cord'.
I don’t know if JM Bullion‘s website clearly explains this but I did read somewhere else that the entire reverse of the coin is designed to appear like a vinyl record. Obviously there are some other design features that sort of break up the record kind of look, but the lines or grooves of the record a clearly visible around the outside portions of the coin.
Another thing to note, along the edge of the reverse and also the obverse of the coin, there is a pattern it goes the whole way around. The pattern to me resembles ocean waves. I don’t know if this is accurate or not, but it looks like it to me. If you have any other ideas or know exactly what it’s supposed to be please let me know. Otherwise I’m going with waves of the ocean. LOL.
The Latin term Vivat Humanitas, as printed on the reverse of the coin, translates to "Long Live Humanity". What a beautiful thing to celebrate, humanity, in such a cool way. Song must be a key element in these communities, as the coin depicts many musical design features. I suppose that music is also something that binds us all together and something we can all relate to in one way or another.
The Edge
The edging of the coin is reeded and again my favorite type of edge. I wish I had more to say about the edge but I don’t. The edge is the edge.
Other Information
The version of the coin I purchased is the 2021 in brilliant uncirculated condition. Per the website, they increase the mintage this year by 10,000 coins to a grand total of 30,000 minted coins. This is a real beauty of a coin. If you enjoy music or collect musical items, then maybe this coin is the one for you. There’s a premium on these limited mintage coins, but it may be worth it to have one in the collection for the fun of it. Visit JMBullion Here, to get your very own.
Also right now it is 82F in Tokelau.. That sounds nice. I bet it is absolutely beautiful there.
“Nights and days came and passed
And summer and winter
and the rain.
And it was good to be a little Island.
A part of the world
and a world of its own
All surrounded by the bright blue sea.”
― Margaret Wise Brown, The Little Island
Thank you for swinging by my blog and checking out the post. Have a great day!
All words, pictures and art pieces are the sole property of B D Miller Gallery, unless otherwise noted and credited, and are not to be reproduced or copied without the prior written consent of B D Miller Gallery.
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