Big Boy, the pride of American engineering, appears on the second coloured silver coin of the Czech Mint from the series entitled Famous Locomotives.

The first transcontinental railway was built in the United States in 1869, connecting the east and west of the country. Most of the line from Nebraska to Utah, which was the work of the Union Pacific railroad company, ran through flat country. However, the Wasatch Mountains were the exception. To carry heavy freight here, two locomotives had to be used at the head of the train, andsometimes an auxiliary locomotive had to be added to the end of the train. This complicated and costly situation was solved in 1941 by a gigantic engine on which an unknown worker wrote Big Boy in chalk. The Big Boy, as the entire 4000 series was eventually named, ranks among the largest and most powerful steam locomotives of all time. It could pull a 4000-ton train at 35 miles per hour over rough terrain with a 12-mile gradient. Weighing 548 tons, the over 40-meter-long American locomotives were in active service until 1959. After the switch to diesel traction, they were no match for them and had to be replaced by up to five diesel machines.

The reverse side of the coin, which is the work of the medal maker Mgr. Petr Horák, presents a locomotive running along a slope with the inscription 4884 WHEEL ARRANGEMENT - this arrangement of wheels was unique to the American machine. The realistic appearance of the locomotive was created with the help of colouring technology. Her name, BIG BOY, is embedded in the smoke blowing from the chimney. The obverse side of the coin, which is common to the entire cycle, then presents the railway tracks and the tunnel. As the coins of the Czech Mint are issued with the foreign licence of the island of Niue, the obverse side also bears its national emblem, the nominal value of 1 DOLLAR (NZD) and the year of issue 2024.

Coins dedicated to famous locomotives can be saved in a collector's album that you can also find in the offer of the Czech Mint.