The coin should be shipping at the end of the year for around the €250/$310 USD/£198 and while it comes with a certificate, there’s no box. Only a limited number of dealers are selling the coin outside of Powercoin, including the First Coin Company who for a nice touch, are including a free LED-lit 60x microscope (Code 4NANO at checkout for 4% discount).

Commissioned and imagined by Italian coin dealer Powercoin, produced by industry favourite Coin Invest Trust (CIT) and struck by the extremely capable Mayer Mint in Germany, the coin certainly has expertise behind it, and it’s no surprise to say it’s a complete success. Each coin is struck in 25g of fine silver and has an antique finish. Embedded within the reverse side strike is a small, in this case octagonal piece of high-purity and ultra-smooth quartz, on which is engraved an ultra-high resolution monochrome image. To view the image you’ll need a microscope, it’s far to small to make out detail with the naked eye. Designed and fabricated by a high-tech, dust-free process by Nano Jewellery in Germany , similar types of nano-chips have appeared in other coins like CIT’s nano Earth/Space/Sea range , and the Helvetic Mints Pi and Shakespeare coins.

First debuting back in 2012 with a beautiful coin depicting Michaelangelos’s “Creation Of Adam” in the Sistine Chapel, this series of oval silver coins featuring an embedded nano-chip, has gone from strength to strength. Carrying on in 2013 with an equally impressive coin featuring twenty frescoes from Raphaels Rooms in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican, 2014 brings the third and latest entrant in the series, the spectacular domed fresco in Florence Cathedral.

FLORENCE CATHEDRAL

Actually named the ‘Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore’ (Basilica of Saint Mary of the Flower), this magnificent building was started in 1296 in the Gothic style to a design by the Tuscan architect Arnolfo di Cambio. It was structurally completed in 1436, bearing a dome engineered by one of the foremost architects and engineers of the Italian Renaissance, Filippo Brunelleschi

The exterior of the basilica is faced with polychrome marble panels in various shades of green and pink bordered by white and has an elaborate 19th-century Gothic Revival façade by Emilio De Fabris.

The cathedral complex, located in Piazza del Duomo, includes the Baptistery and Giotto’s Campanile. The three buildings are part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site covering the historic centre of Florence and are a major attraction to tourists visiting the region of Tuscany. The basilica is one of Italy’s largest churches, and until development of new structural materials in the modern era, the dome was the largest in the world. It remains the largest brick dome ever constructed.

It was suggested that the interior of the 45 metre (147 ft) wide dome should be covered with a mosaic decoration to make the most of the available light coming through the circular windows of the drum and through the lantern. Brunelleschi had proposed the vault to glimmer with resplendent gold, but his death in 1446 put an end to this project, and the walls of the dome were whitewashed. Grand Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici decided to have the dome painted with a representation of The Last Judgment. This enormous work, 3,600 metres² (38 750 ft²) of painted surface, was started in 1568 by Giorgio Vasari and Federico Zuccari and would last till 1579. The upper portion, near the lantern, representing The 24 Elders of Apoc. 4 was finished by Vasari before his death in 1574. Federico Zuccari and a number of collaborators, such as Domenico Cresti, finished the other portions: (from top to bottom) Choirs of Angels; Christ, Mary and Saints; Virtues, Gifts of the Holy Spirit and Beatitudes; and at the bottom of the cuppola: Capital Sins and Hell. These frescoes are considered Zuccari’s greatest work. But the quality of the work is uneven because of the input of different artists and the different techniques. (Source: Wikipedia)

Below right is an image of the dome interior. To the left is the nano-chip representation, under which are four closeups of the chip taken with a microscope.