1 Cent - Elizabeth II 3rd portrait

Tuvalu's cent coinage has always occupied an awkward economic reality — the islands' reliance on the Australian dollar as de facto currency meant these pieces saw almost no genuine circulation from the outset. The 1994 issue was produced largely for collector sets rather than pocket change, which explains the disproportionate number of surviving examples in unimpaired condition.

The third portrait of Elizabeth II, by Raphael Maklouf, was adopted across Commonwealth territories through the late 1980s and into the 1990s following the phaseout of Arnold Machin's second effigy.