1 Dollar - Elizabeth II Pygmy Hippopotamus

Niue has operated as a prolific licensing hub for commemorative coinage since the 1990s, contracting its sovereign issuing rights to private mints — primarily the New Zealand Mint — who design and market the pieces largely for collector sale rather than circulation. This coin never entered Niuean commerce in any meaningful sense; the island's population hovers around 1,500.

The pygmy hippopotamus is native to West Africa, critically endangered, and estimated at fewer than 2,500 individuals in the wild as of the mid-2010s.