About the Piece
A balloon dog begins as one of the simplest party objects: latex, air and a few twists, made to amuse and never meant to last. In the 1990s, Jeff Koons pushed that familiar form to the opposite extreme, turning it into monumental mirror-polished stainless steel and one of contemporary art’s most recognizable images. In 2013, Balloon Dog (Orange) sold at Christie’s for $58.405 million.
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Spectres takes the familiar balloon dog somewhere else again. Instead of making it monumental, the piece is small enough to hold — but one troy ounce of .999 silver replaces the air and latex that normally give the object its form. The visual language remains light and inflated while the physical experience becomes unexpectedly dense. Its Proof finish is part of that translation: polished silver reflects and distorts its surroundings, retaining the glossy surface associated with stretched balloon skin.
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That reversal is what gives the piece its appeal. Something temporary becomes permanent. Something almost weightless gains real mass. A form associated with parties and disposability becomes a precious-metal object made to be kept — still immediately recognizable, but physically the opposite of what a balloon dog is supposed to be.
Specifications
What’s Included
- Individually numbered Spectres piece
- Matching numbered Certificate of Authenticity with product specifications
- Custom-designed Spectres presentation box
Every Spectres piece carries the Ghost mint mark.
How is this a coin?
- A coin is defined by its official issuance, not by its physical shape. This piece is formally issued as legal tender by a sovereign issuing authority, with an official denomination and year of issue.
- Money and coinage have also taken unconventional forms throughout history, including ancient Chinese knife- and spade-shaped money. Spectres continues that idea in modern legal tender, where a coin may be round, shaped, functional, sculptural or fully three-dimensional.
