Niue in Chess

In the ten years that I've been running the series on Top eBay Chess Items by Price (March 2010), I've featured only a handful of coins. The previous post on the topic was Armenia Olympiad Gold (August 2014).

The title of the auction for the item shown below was '2018 Niue Chess Antiqued Silver Coin 2oz COA with REAL MINI CHESS PIECES'. The coin sold for US $598 'Buy It Now'. This is the second straight month that an auction for the coin was on my short list, and the photo of the coin's face (upper left) was taken from a previous auction.

The bottom photo shows the tiny pieces set up on the back of the coin. The auction description listed the coin's attributes:-

Country: Niue •. Year: 2018 •. Face value: 5 Dollars •. Metal: Silver 999. •. Weight (g): 62.2 (2oz) •. Size (mm): 63 •. Quality: ANTIQUE •. Mintage (pcs): 500 •. Certificate COA: Yes •. Box: Yes

The description from the January auction described the appearance of the coin:-

2018 Niue Island Chess Set Antique 2oz. 999 round by ArtMint. •. The reverse of the coin features the wonderful and colored image of a Chessboard surrounded by beautiful decorative elements. The coin comes with the 32 pieces to play the game. The obverse of the coin presents the image of the Queen piece [NB: It's a King] beside the effigy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the inscriptions: “NIUE ISLAND” -- the issuing country, “5 DOLLARS” -- the face value, “ELIZABETH II” -- the name of the Queen, “Ag 999” -- the fineness of the Silver, “2018” -- the year of issue and “2oz” -- the weight of the coin.

Where is Niue? Wikipedia's Niue page says,

Niue is an island country in the South Pacific Ocean, 2,400 kilometres (1,500 mi) northeast of New Zealand, east of Tonga, south of Samoa, and west of the Cook Islands. Niue's land area is about 261 square kilometres (101 sq mi) and its population, predominantly Polynesian, was about 1,600 in 2016.

Also worth noting: 'Niue is one of the world's largest coral islands.' The population has diminished by about two-thirds since the 1950s.