10 Dollars Apostle James, Son of Alphaeus

The Marshall Islands issued a long-running series of $10 commemoratives through the 1990s in Nordic Gold — an aluminum-bronze alloy developed by the Nordic countries in the late 1980s as a cost-effective, corrosion-resistant alternative to traditional bronze. James the Lesser, consistently the most obscure of the Twelve Apostles, appears here almost by obligation; beyond his name and parentage he is given almost no independent narrative in any of the Gospels. The coins in this apostle series were never legal tender in any practical sense and circulated primarily through direct-mail collector programs rather than through any banking system.