First mintage of only 1,000 coins!
Baird & Co., Britain’s only gold refinery has launched the world's first legal tender coin made of rhodium: the Tuvaluan $100 Coin.
Rhodium is the one of the world’s rarest metals. It is a brittle metal which when refined metamorphoses into a dazzlingly bright, silver metal. A member of the platinum family, rhodium is 100 times rarer than gold. Baird & Co is the first company to develop the technology to manufacture rhodium bars, coins and jewelry that are machinable and not brittle.
The Tuvaluan $100 Coin is similar in size to the UK’s £2 coin and also features the Queen’s head. That is where the similarity ends: the face value is 100 Tuvaluan dollars (approximately £55). The coin won’t scratch or tarnish - rhodium is highly resistant.
The coins are legal tender in the South Pacific island of Tuvalu, a member of the Commonwealth which became independent from Britain in 1978.