Sea Turtle Coin from the Cook Islands

by Ann Nolen
(Santa Rosa, CA, USA)

Hand-painted coin jewelry

This is a real coin that I have hand-painted, added a thick clear coat to give the appearance of enamelling, and made into a pendant.

This is a 50 Tene coin from the Cook Islands, and it features a Sea Turtle.

The Cook Islands have many collectible type coins they have issued, and I think it may be their way of boosting their economy!

Why else would they have coins features USA National Parks, a Great Explorers series, and an Endangered Animals series with African animals?

I do have to note that their plan to sell coins is working, with me anyway.

The Cook Islands are about 2,000 miles northeast of New Zealand. They only have a population of about 17,000 people and actually are a dependency of New Zealand.

They are named for Captain Cook, who sailed to these islands three times in the 1770's. He named them Harvey Islands, after someone else, but obviously the name didn't stick.

To see more interesting coins and their stories, please see my website:

Ann Nolen
AnimalCoin.com
More coin stories

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Sea Turtle Coin from the Cook Islands

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Worth much more than its face value
by: Rena

Ann, this is a wonderful piece - your color adds so much to the beauty of the coin.

And the stories that go with your pieces give them much more meaning.

I love your line of coin jewelry and how it brings together your jewelry making talent with your passion for collecting foreign coins.

I think your love of both of these gives your pieces a secret spark.

I encourage anyone here who hasn't seen Ann's demo video, "And Just How Do You Paint These Coins?" to watch it here:

http://www.animalcoin.com/demo.html