Phar Lap died in Menlo Park, California on 5 April 1932 — just eighteen days after winning the Agua Caliente Handicap in a track record time. The cause remained disputed for decades, with arsenic poisoning long suspected and later confirmed through forensic hair analysis in 2008, the year after this coin was issued. Whether the poisoning was deliberate has never been established.
Phar Lap died in Menlo Park, California on 5 April 1932 — just eighteen days after winning the Agua Caliente Handicap in a track record time. The cause remained disputed for decades, with arsenic poisoning long suspected and later confirmed through forensic hair analysis in 2008, the year after this coin was issued. Whether the poisoning was deliberate has never been established.