10 Dollars Small Indian mongoose, copper-nickel

Jamaica introduced the small Indian mongoose (Urva auropunctata) in 1872 to control rat populations devastating the sugarcane crop. The experiment backfired catastrophically — the mongoose, being diurnal, rarely encountered the nocturnal rats and instead decimated ground-nesting birds, lizards, and snake populations across the island. By the 1980s it was firmly established as one of the most ecologically destructive invasive species in Caribbean history, an irony the coin's issuing authority apparently found commemorable.