1 Dollar - Elizabeth II The Pope in the Holy Land

Issued to mark Pope Benedict XVI's March 2009 pilgrimage to Jordan, Israel, and the Palestinian Territories — his first visit to the region as pontiff. The trip was politically fraught from the outset, shadowed by controversy over his 2006 Regensburg address and a January 2009 decision to lift the excommunication of a bishop who had publicly denied the Holocaust.

At 0.5 grams of .9999 fine gold, these Cook Islands fractional issues were produced in small quantities almost entirely for the collector market, with virtually no circulation.