10 Dollars - Elizabeth II - Silver Jubilee of Independence

Fiji gained independence from Britain in October 1970, making 1995 the 25th anniversary the Reserve Bank chose to commemorate. The timing is worth noting: this coin was issued the same year a military coup attempt in 1987 still cast a long shadow over Fijian politics, with ethnic tensions between indigenous Fijians and Indo-Fijians having already produced two coups under Sitiveni Rabuka. Commemorating independence with Elizabeth II still on the obverse captures the unresolved constitutional awkwardness of that period precisely — Fiji had been expelled from the Commonwealth after the 1987 coups and only readmitted in 1997.