1 Dollar - Elizabeth II Abel Tasman

Abel Tasman reached the coast of what is now New Zealand in December 1642, becoming the first European to sight the islands — yet he never set foot on them. After several of his crew were killed in an encounter with Māori near the northern tip of the South Island, he sailed away and reported the landmass as possibly connected to a great southern continent. The Dutch East India Company deemed the territory commercially unpromising and mounted no follow-up expedition.

Tuvalu's commemorative dollar program has issued extensively under Australian minting arrangements, with this piece produced by the Perth Mint.