10 Dollars Independence, silver proof

Belize struck this proof issue to mark the tenth anniversary of independence from Britain, achieved on 21 September 1981 — a date that nearly didn't arrive. Guatemala had long claimed the entire territory, and the independence declaration was made only under the protection of a British military garrison that remained in place for over a decade afterward. The geopolitical uncertainty of those early years gave commemorative issues from this period an urgency that purely celebratory coins rarely carry.