Tokelau's 1980 coinage program was among the first attempts to give the territory — three atolls in the South Pacific administered by New Zealand — any numismatic identity at all. The islands had no indigenous coinage tradition and a cash economy so minimal that these pieces were aimed squarely at collectors rather than circulation. New Zealand assumed formal administrative responsibility under the Tokelau Islands Act of 1948, and it was not until the late 1970s that the territory began issuing coins under its own name.
The second portrait of Elizabeth II used here is the Machin effigy, first adopted across Commonwealth coinage from 1968 onward.
Tokelau's 1980 coinage program was among the first attempts to give the territory — three atolls in the South Pacific administered by New Zealand — any numismatic identity at all. The islands had no indigenous coinage tradition and a cash economy so minimal that these pieces were aimed squarely at collectors rather than circulation. New Zealand assumed formal administrative responsibility under the Tokelau Islands Act of 1948, and it was not until the late 1970s that the territory began issuing coins under its own name.
The second portrait of Elizabeth II used here is the Machin effigy, first adopted across Commonwealth coinage from 1968 onward.