Judging by the amount of readers looking at the articles in question, it’s obvious to us that the most popular news surrounds the arrival of a new bullion coin. We’ve had a fair few new ones arrive on the market and we’re currently writing a guide to them all we think you’ll like. However, the precious metal coin world is a notoriously difficult one in which to get definitive factual information in a coherent way, and much of our time is spent doing exactly that, often with the odd hiccup along the way.

Case in point is the latest new coin, the Niue Hawksbill. This one has generated a lot of extra interest because it’s an evolution of a widely liked coin we thought had vanished from the scene, the Fiji Taku. It was stated earlier this year by sources within the coins issuer, the New Zealand Mint, that attempted changes to the licencing rights, by the Fijjian government, to produce the coin had made the continued production economically unviable. Thus there was to be no 2014 dated issues.

Fiji has been the subject of multiple military coups over the last decade or so which has led to them being ejected from both the Pacific Islands Forum and the Commonwealth of Nations because of a failure to hold the first free elections since the last coup in late 2006. This explains why 2013-dated Taku coins carried the Fijiian national emblem on the reverse instead of the standard portrait of Queen Elizabeth II. Not a popular choice either inside or outside the country, because while we hear the usual moans that yet another coin has the Queens head on the obverse, there’s no doubt that the portrait confers upon the coin a worldwide legitimacy it wouldn’t normaly have. In a world driven by financial markets, themselves driven by confidence, it’s a key point.

We’d heard from sources a couple of months ago that the mint was working on a new bullion coin to replace the Taku, and we figured, correctly it now appears, that long-time NZ Mint partner Niue, would be the state of choice. Unfortunately, initial images and information came from a major US dealer instead of directly from the mint and they were wrong. Twice. The first images were of an option not chosen. The second were of a proof commemorative, not the bullion coin, and with the wrong obverse. Here’s where we clear this up with the aid of the mint itself.