10 Dollars Gerhard Schroeder

Nauru's numismatic program in the early 2000s was frankly a fundraising operation dressed as coinage — the island nation issued dozens of tiny gold pieces bearing portraits of foreign heads of state, capitalizing on collector demand rather than any domestic monetary need. This piece honoring Schröder appeared while he was still Chancellor, an unusual choice given that commemorative portraiture of living foreign politicians is rare in legitimate coinage traditions.

Schröder's 2005 electoral loss to Angela Merkel, just months after this coin's issue, gave the piece an accidental timeliness.