The first silver coin from the Czech Mint's new series called Mythological Creatures features the terrifying Cyclopes.

Cyclopes - giants with a single eye in the middle of their forehead - are primitive and brutal creatures endowed with enormous strength. They live in dens where they lie in wait for unfortunate travellers, whom they then devour. The Greek hero Odysseus encountered one such monster on his travels. Although he eventually outwitted and blinded the bloodthirsty Polyphemus, he lost half his men. Among the Cyclopes, however, there are also skilled craftsmen - builders or blacksmiths who make weapons endowed with divine power in the bowels of volcanoes. When Zeus and his siblings rose up against their father Cronus and the other Titans, it was the Cyclopes who forged Zeus' deadly lightning bolts and Hades' helmet of invisibility. And it was also the Cyclops who built the impenetrable Mycenaean walls out of giant boulders... Where did the legend of the one-eyed giants come from? One suggestion is that the ancient Greeks found skulls of prehistoric dwarf elephants twice the size of humans in Crete and Sicily. They have a large nasal cavity in the middle, at the trunk, which resembles a huge eye socket. Another speculation is that they were real blacksmiths who covered one eye with tape to protect it from flying sparks. Other scholars believe that some blacksmiths had a sun tattooed on their foreheads to show respect for the life-giving star, which resembled an eye.

The reverse side of the coin, which is the work of the medal maker Roman Shamilyan, presents a hardy cyclopes. The silhouette of an anvil stands out in the background behind the head, dominated by a single eyeball. As the Pacific island of Niue is licensed by the Czech Mint to issue commemorative coins, the obverse side bears its national emblem, the nominal value of 2 DOLLARS (NZD) and the year of issue 2024. These necessary elements are supplemented with elemental nature - rocks, clouds, trees and waves. The details of the relief are highlighted by the patina.

You can save the complete twelve-piece collection of coins with characters from the realms of myth, legend and fantasy in a collector's album that you can also find in our offer.