1 Dollar Lionfish and Parrotfish - Palladium Essai

Palau gained the authority to issue its own coinage under a 1994 compact with the United States, and quickly became one of the most experimentally prolific issuers in the Pacific — particularly in precious metals. This piece is an essai, meaning it was struck as a trial or proof-of-concept rather than for general release, which explains the palladium composition: by 2000, several mints were testing palladium as a collector vehicle, though the metal never achieved the commercial traction that silver and gold retained.

Palladium essais from small Pacific island issuers are rarely documented in standard references, and surviving quantities are almost never officially recorded.