2/3 oz The Power of the Tiger 2022 Silver Coin

History

The eyes of the five animals featured in the series are resplendent on the reverse of the five different coins, each in its own shade of sublime Swarovski® crystal.

Unexpected encounters with wild animals could be traumatic events for prehistoric people and the sudden appearance of shining animal eyes in the dark a moment of terror. It is no wonder that animals featured prominently in their dreams or they thought that wild creatures had supernatural powers.

They imagined that animals had a special relationship with the gods and some even thought that animals were gods themselves. Prehistoric people admired and envied wild animals, studied their characteristics and hoped that they had skills and qualities that could be passed on to humans.

Made of elegant, lacquered wood, the Eyes of the World collector case consists of a protective slipcase and a storage box, both featuring a stylised eye in the centre that hints enticingly at what lies inside. As well as space for the five superb silver coins in the Eyes of the World series, under the decorative coin tray there is room to store the coin certificates. Continent by continent, the coins not only pay homage to the exceptional animals that were praised in the myths of previous cultures, but also take us on a fascinating journey through human history

Comes in a case complete with a numbered certificate of authenticity and protective slipcase

In the cultural history of Asia, images of the tiger abound. Power and strength in all their forms are ascribed to the predator. In China, where the Year of the Tiger begins on 1 February 2022, the animal has always been an emblem of potency and bravery. In Hinduism, too, it plays a highly symbolic role, with the goddess Durga often portrayed astride a tiger. Ever alert, silent and solitary, the tiger sets out mainly at dusk or at night in search of prey, often wandering for hours at a time. Unlike lions, for which rivers and lakes present a barrier, tigers love water and are excellent swimmers. Deep in the bamboo thickets of the jungle, an eerie blur of light and shadow makes a fleeting appearance. But so perfectly camouflaged by its magnificent stripes, the tiger remains unrecognizable. A tiger is shown moving through a bamboo thicket on the coin’s obverse, the outer ring of which is adorned in the manner of the mandala, the geometric configuration of symbols that possesses magical significance in the rituals of Buddhism and Hinduism. The reverse is entirely dominated by the mighty head of a tiger, whose face is s ornamented with punctiform-decorated scars and, last but not least, finely polished crystals by Swarovski®.

Australian Lunar silver coins are based on the Chinese Lunar Zodiac 

It is believed that the Chinese lunar calendar was created almost five millennia ago by primeval ruling dynasties. Since that time, the calendar has been continuously improved by astronomers of different royal Chinese courts, culminating in a final version that was calculated according to the earth’s movement around the sun, but fitted into a lunar calendar, thus making it officially a lunisolar calendar. The decision to base the calendar on two celestial bodies stems from the fact that the moon’s motion around the earth is not in synchronisation with the earth’s motion around the sun, creating a time disparity which created a problem for farmers who, of course, needed an accurate calendar that would tell them the best time for planting and harvesting in accordance with the sun’s movement. Originally, the calendar was based on the cycles of the moon, as it was much easier for the ancient astronomers to make the necessary calculation. But, as time passed, they noticed the disparity between the lunar year which consisted of twelve months, each month consisting of 29.5 days which totalled 354 days in a year, and the solar year, which numbered a total of 365.24 days, thus making the lunar year 11 days shorter than the earth’s yearly orbit around the sun. To better synchronise the lunar calendar with the sun, a leap month was added every two or three years similar to that of the modern solar calendar where nearly every 4 years on February 29 an extra leap day is added to align the earth’s revolution around the sun. 

In contrast to most other calendars, the Chinese lunar calendar does not count years in an infinite sequence, but is instead composed of  a 12 year period that is repeated five times in order to get to a cycle that is equal to 60 years. Each year of the period consists of two components, a heavenly stem and a terrestrial branch. The heavenly stem consists of ten symbols, which were the names of the ten days in the week used by the ancient Chinese, while the terrestrial branch consists of 12 animals from the Chinese zodiac cycle. For the creation of one year, each stem is combined with every second terrestrial branch. Thus, when all possible combinations between the heavenly stems and terrestrial branches have been made, this being equal to 60, the final cycle is created and subsequently it starts over once again. This method of cyclical dating is believed to be among the longest continuous sequences of time measurement in history. China today uses the Gregorian calendar, a solar calendar, for all civil purposes, but the lunar calendar is still the main calendar used by various communities in China and East Asia to determine festival dates such as weddings, the Chinese New Year and other auspicious festivities.

The Austrian Mint, a subsidiary of Austria’s Central Bank, is a world renowned mint which dates back to the 12th century. The story of the Austrian Mint begins in 1194, when Richard the Lionheart paid 12 tonnes of silver to secure his freedom from imprisonment by the Austrian Duke Leopold V. The Duke would later use the silver to strike silver coins, thus laying the foundation for the Austrian Mint. In its rich and long history, the Austrian Mint has produced many of Europe’s most famous and widely used coins, including gold crowns, guilders, ducats and silver coins such as the Maria Theresa thaler. Many of the gold coins issued by the Austrian Mint were extensively used in trade during the Austro-Hungarian Empire, while the silver thaler proved to be one of the most minted and widely used silver coins in global commerce between 1750 and the 1950s.  Today, the  mint  is  best recognised  for producing  Europe’s  most  desired  investment bullion coins, the Gold and Silver Philharmonic bullion coins.