If you're looking to add a unique item to your coin collection, the Royal Canadian Mint has released a new piece that not only looks like a sundial but functions as one, too.

The beautifully designed fine silver coin is what the Mint describes as a "functional showcase of craftsmanship."

While the Mint has released coins with stunning designs in the past, it has never produced a piece that works quite like this one.

How does the coin work?

Royal Canadian Mint

The sundial is known as the world's earliest timekeeping device. It's composed of two main parts: a flat circular plate and a dial or stick called a gnomon.

When a sundial is aligned properly, it will tell the local solar time based on where the sun casts its shadow on its surface.

This is essentially how the Mint's new coin functions.

It includes a rhodium-plated brass gnomon. When placed in the sun and pointed in the direction of true north, the gnomon casts a shadow onto the base of the coin, indicating the time.

"Like any sundial, some additional adjustments may be required due to longitude and the time of year," notes the Mint.

The design

Royal Canadian Mint

Canadian artist Anna Bucciarelli designed the coin's reverse, which is adorned with acanthus leaves. Roman numerals indicating the time are engraved around the coin's edge.

To keep with the theme of the sun, there's also a sunflower that anchors the gnomon.

Bucciarelli, who is known for her intricate watercolour pieces, notes that this coin has been her "favourite design challenge yet."

Royal Canadian Mint

"There's a lot of circular symmetry to be found here: some of the organic details are emanating from the sunflower representation of the sun, which supports the ornate gnomon, while others convey a more spiral-like movement that echoes the passage of time," she said in a statement on the Mint's website.

How can you get this coin?

This coin will not be going into circulation, so you'll have to head to the Royal Canadian Mint's website to order it.

The piece has a mintage of 5,000, meaning you should act fast if you're looking to add it to your collection. The Mint has also limited the coin to two per customer.

It comes beautifully packaged in a black Royal Canadian Mint-branded clamshell with a black beauty box. It has a face value of $20 and retails for $159.95.