Tuvalu's wildlife coin program, run through the Perth Mint under licensing arrangements with the island nation, has issued dozens of circulating dollar types since the 1990s. The Striated Pardalote — one of Australia's smallest birds, resident across the continent but rarely noticed — appears here as part of that broader Australian fauna series that Tuvalu effectively mints as a neighbor with a convenient royal portrait and no mint of its own.
Tuvalu's wildlife coin program, run through the Perth Mint under licensing arrangements with the island nation, has issued dozens of circulating dollar types since the 1990s. The Striated Pardalote — one of Australia's smallest birds, resident across the continent but rarely noticed — appears here as part of that broader Australian fauna series that Tuvalu effectively mints as a neighbor with a convenient royal portrait and no mint of its own.