The Cook Islands has issued commemorative silver dollars under its own authority since 1972, despite using the New Zealand dollar as its circulating currency — a jurisdictional quirk that makes its numismatic program legally valid while remaining entirely disconnected from domestic commerce. This 2019 piece reproduces the Morgan Dollar design, originally created by George T. Morgan and first struck at Philadelphia in 1878 after Congress mandated silver coinage purchases from western mining interests under the Bland-Allison Act.
The original Morgan series was itself a political coin, born of lobbying rather than monetary necessity.
The Cook Islands has issued commemorative silver dollars under its own authority since 1972, despite using the New Zealand dollar as its circulating currency — a jurisdictional quirk that makes its numismatic program legally valid while remaining entirely disconnected from domestic commerce. This 2019 piece reproduces the Morgan Dollar design, originally created by George T. Morgan and first struck at Philadelphia in 1878 after Congress mandated silver coinage purchases from western mining interests under the Bland-Allison Act.
The original Morgan series was itself a political coin, born of lobbying rather than monetary necessity.