1 Dollar - Elizabeth II 4th portrait - Tangaroa, Guardian of the Ocean

Tangaroa is the Māori atua of the sea, and his prominence in this issue reflects a deliberate shift in the Reserve Bank's commemorative program toward te ao Māori — a repositioning that accelerated markedly after the 2019 Wellbeing Budget and its formal embedding of Te Tiriti principles into government policy. New Zealand's silver one-dollar commemoratives are struck to standard bullion specifications, with distribution handled primarily through New Zealand Post rather than circulation channels.