1 Dollar - Elizabeth II AirBorne Operation

Issued under Cook Islands' well-established arrangement with the New Zealand Treasury, which permits the territory to produce legal tender collectibles without those pieces ever entering domestic circulation. The "AirBorne Operation" subject almost certainly references Allied airborne campaigns of the Second World War — Normandy, Market Garden, or similar — a theme that has been worked extensively by Pacific island mints whose actual historical connection to the events is administrative rather than geographic.

Gold-plated copper issues of this type were produced in significant quantities for the collector and gift market during the 2010s, primarily distributed through European and American third-party dealers.