1 Dollar - Elizabeth II Archangel Raphael

Cook Islands has issued gold miniatures under its authority since the 1990s, leveraging its status as a self-governing territory in free association with New Zealand to produce collector pieces well outside the needs of any domestic circulation. This Archangel Raphael dollar belongs to a series tapping the sustained European retail market for religious-themed bullion and numismatic miniatures — a commercial category that expanded sharply in the early 2000s. The .9999 fineness places it among the purest gold fractional issues of that decade.