A special edition of pure gold and silver coins is being issued to mark Sir Edmund Hillary's accomplishments.
On May 29, 1953 Sir Edmund and Tenzing Norgay reached Mt Everest's peak.
The quarter ounce pure gold coins are being released by New Zealand Post under authorisation from the Reserve Bank. They are legal tender for $10 but will cost $575 to buy.
The $1 silver coins will set you back $89.
Nearly 3,000 people have climbed Everest from the Nepali and Tibetan sides since Sir Edmund and Tenzing Norgay's ascent in 1953.
While the Everest climb is the achievement Sir Ed is most widely remembered for, he had many more succesful adventures throughout his life.
He set out to explore places many others feared to tread - the South Pole, the Ganges, the North Pole, there was even a hunt for the mythical Yeti.
In 1958 he led a Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic team to another adventuring first.
On Fergusson tractors Sir Ed and his team drove overland to the South Pole. The 2,000 kilometre journey from Scott Base to the South Pole took 82 days and they arrived with about 15 miles of petrol left in their tanks.
Sir Ed and his team became the first men to reach the pole since Robert Falcon Scott, beating the British explorer Vivien Fuchs by 16 days in a legendary unscheduled race.
But it was climbing that led to one of his greatest ventures - his humanitarion actions.
In 1961 Sir Ed returned to Himalaya's for an attempt at Mt Makalu without oxygen. But the climb would signal the end of Hillary's mountaineering days. He became ill and decided that he did not have the stamina to continue as a high altitude climber.
During the expedition he asked the sherpas what he could do for their village. They replied that they needed their children to go to school. That request became the inspiration for his lifelong work - helping to improve the health and educational conditions of the Nepalese people.
The Himalayan Trust was set up to help Sir Ed's work in Nepal.
In over 30 years his work helped to build 20 schools two hospitals
several medical clinics, and two airfields.
