2018 $20 Cook Islands Vesta, the Largest Asteroid, Diogenite 3ozAg PCGS MS69

2018 $20 Cook Islands Vesta, the Largest Asteroid, Diogenite

• Silver Content: 3 oz .999 Silver
• Denomination: Twenty Dollars
• Diameter: 65mm
• Mintage: 333 coins for 2018, 111 for each sample classification (H+E+D)
• Certification: PCGS

Composed of .999 fine silver, this gorgeous coin features a small amount of coloration on the face for depth of detail. A gorgeous glass insert centrally located in the coin features imagery of Vesta, and holding the coin in front of a light will illuminate the image in space. 

Discovered in March 29, 1807 by German Astronomer Heinrich Wilhelm Olbers and named after the virgin Roman goddess of home and hearth, Vesta.

Vesta is the largest asteroid in the asteroid belt, the second largest object in the belt, only second in size to the dwarf planet Ceres. One to two billion years ago, Vesta was on the recieving end of some massive impacts, which can still be seen. Because of these impacts, material was ejected from the surface of Vesta and has fallen to earth in 3 distinct samplings, Howardite, Diogenite and Eucrite (HED). These samplings have helped understand the composition of this amazing little proto planet. Between 2011 and 2012 NASA's DAWN spacecraft orbited Vesta and gathered more data about the object.

DIOGENITE: Currently believed to originated deep within the crust. Composed of plutonically originating igneous rocks, which cooled slower and formed larger crystals, larger than that of the eucrites. The crystals are magnesium rich orthopyroxine and smaller quantities of plagioclase and olivine. Named after the Greek philosopher Diogenes of Apollonia, who is remembered as the first to suggest the origins of meteorites to be outer space.