10 Dollars - Elizabeth II 3rd Portrait - Southern Right Whale

The Southern Right Whale was hunted to near-extinction by the mid-19th century, with Australian and New Zealand waters among the most heavily worked grounds in the southern hemisphere. By the 1930s the global population had collapsed to perhaps a few hundred individuals. This coin appeared during a period of cautious recovery — Australian waters had been a sanctuary since 1935 — though the species remained formally listed as endangered throughout the 1990s.

The RAM's 1996 wildlife series drew on growing domestic conservation politics following the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio.