10 Dollars 5th Anniversary of Independence, .925 Silver

Kiribati achieved independence from Britain in 1979, making this 1984 issue one of the earliest commemorative silver strikes from a nation that had existed for barely half a decade. The country — formerly the Gilbert Islands — had been a British colony since 1916 and was heavily contested during World War II, with the Battle of Tarawa in 1943 resulting in some of the bloodiest fighting in the Pacific theater.

Low collector demand for Pacific micronation issues has kept mintages for this series underreported in most major catalogs.