Fiji's 2009 coinage reform reduced the dime-sized ten cent from a larger cupro-nickel piece to this lighter nickel-plated steel format, part of a wholesale downsizing of the island nation's circulating series that also dropped the one and two cent denominations entirely. The switch to steel was driven by rising base metal costs that had made the old coins worth more as scrap than as currency.
Fiji's 2009 coinage reform reduced the dime-sized ten cent from a larger cupro-nickel piece to this lighter nickel-plated steel format, part of a wholesale downsizing of the island nation's circulating series that also dropped the one and two cent denominations entirely. The switch to steel was driven by rising base metal costs that had made the old coins worth more as scrap than as currency.