The Marshall Islands began issuing collector-targeted commemorative coinage in the late 1980s under a licensing arrangement that effectively outsourced the program to a U.S.-based private mint. These pieces were never intended for circulation — produced and sold directly to collectors, often through mail-order. The 1996 tiger issue appeared as part of a broad wildlife series that ran across multiple denominations and years, timed loosely to Chinese zodiac cycles with an eye on the Pacific Rim collector market.
KM#298 sees relatively thin secondary-market demand, as the original mintage was not restricted and buyer attrition in the commemorative market of the mid-1990s was steep.
The Marshall Islands began issuing collector-targeted commemorative coinage in the late 1980s under a licensing arrangement that effectively outsourced the program to a U.S.-based private mint. These pieces were never intended for circulation — produced and sold directly to collectors, often through mail-order. The 1996 tiger issue appeared as part of a broad wildlife series that ran across multiple denominations and years, timed loosely to Chinese zodiac cycles with an eye on the Pacific Rim collector market.
KM#298 sees relatively thin secondary-market demand, as the original mintage was not restricted and buyer attrition in the commemorative market of the mid-1990s was steep.