1 Dollar Bottle-Nose Dolphin

Palau's marine-themed dollar series launched in 1994, two years before the island nation had even established its first comprehensive marine sanctuary. The dolphin issue appeared the same year Palau was lobbying internationally to strengthen protections under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species — a political alignment between coinage program and conservation diplomacy that was anything but accidental.

KM#25 is copper-nickel, which distinguishes it from the silver issues in the same broader series that were struck for the collector market.