1 Dollar - Elizabeth II 3rd portrait, Silver Proof

The 1990 New Zealand dollar series marked the sesquicentennial of the Treaty of Waitangi, signed on 6 February 1840 between the British Crown and Māori rangatira. The anniversary was politically charged — Māori land grievances and the newly established Waitangi Tribunal had made the Treaty's legacy a live legal and cultural dispute rather than a settled historical footnote. The proof silver issues from this year were released against that friction.

The third portrait of Elizabeth II, by Raphael Maklouf, had been in use on New Zealand coinage since 1985.