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A stunning new series of silver coins minted for the Cook Islands pays tribute to famous Cathedrals throughout the world. Beautifully designed, featuring stained glass windows, the series bears the title “The Windows of Heaven”.
The obverse of the coin represents an effigy of Elizabeth II as well as the inscription of the Queen’s name. There is a full-colour window ins ert next to the portrait. The obverse also contains the legends indicating the face value of the coin and the name of the issuing country.
The reverse design features the image of the Roman magnificent Bethlehem Church Saint Catherine , with a plan of the outlay of the Church below. Being a powerful testimony to the strength and persistence of Christian belief in medieval and modern Europe, the temple has an exceptional intrinsic value and contains artistic masterpieces, one of them reflected in a full-colour window insert on the reverse of this silver coin. The upper part of the coin contains the legend denoting the name of the series. Below the images, there are the inscriptions of the name of the city and the year of mintage.
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Contains 50 grams of .925 Silver.
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Coin is decorated with real stained glass
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Each coin comes in a special box with a COA.
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Strict limited mintage of only 2000 coins.
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Obverse: Effigy of Queen Elizabeth II, “Cook Islands”, and the legal tender value of 10 Dollars
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Reverse: A very high quality rendition of Bethlehem Church Saint Catherine
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In the series of Windows of Heaven you can find:
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2010 Windows of Heaven – Cologne
2011 Windows of Heaven – Notre Dame de Paris
2011 Windows of Heaven – Sevilla
2011 Windows of Heaven – Westminster Abbey London
2011 Windows of History – Titanic
2012 Windows of Heaven – Bethlehem
2012 Windows of Heaven – Cracow St Francis
2012 Windows of Heaven – St Isaac Cathedral
2013 Windows of Heaven – Chartres
2013 Windows of Heaven – Lourdes
2013 Windows of Heaven – Milan Cathedral
2013 Windows of History – Grand Central Terminal
2014 Windows of Heaven – Buenos Aires
2014 Windows of Heaven – Sacre Coeur
2014 Windows of Heaven – Sacre Coeur
2014 Windows of Heaven – Washington National Cathedral – Special Editon
2014 Windows of Heaven Giants – Cologne Cathedral – Special Edition
2015 Windows of Heaven – Zagreb Cathedral
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History:
These days the Church of Saint Catherine in Bethlehem, Israel is probably best known as the venue where the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem holds the midnight mass on Christmas Eve each year. The event is televised worldwide and the mass is attended by hundreds of Christians who come from near and far to celebrate the birth of Christ.
The Church of Saint Catherine in Bethlehem is a Roman Catholic Church right next door to the Church of the Nativity. The inner courtyard or Franciscan cloisters leads to the entrance of Saint Catherine’s Church and is a small tranquil oasis surrounded on all sides by holy buildings: the Franciscan Monastery, the Church of Saint Catherine and the Church of the nativity. The Church of Saint Catherine shares a wall with the Church of the Nativity and there is even an adjoining door from the north aisle of the Church of the Nativity. In 1470 the Franciscans made a passage way connecting the Grotto of the Nativity in the Church of the Nativity with the Church of Saint Catherine which at that time was a more basic structure called the Chapel of the Canons of Saint Augustine. Tourists can now pass through the narrow stone passage ways from one church to the other.
The Church of Saint Catherine has earned it’s status as a holy site firstly because of it’s proximity to the birth place of Jesus and secondly because it marks the place where, in 310AD Jesus came to Catherine of Alexandria in a vision and predicted that she would die a martyr. The Church of Saint Catherine dates back to at least the 15th century and over the years has undergone several structural changes, today the Basilica is a spacious large modern looking church but beneath the church are ancient chambers each with Christian significance.
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Bethlehem Church Saint Catherine
