10 Dollars To the Heroes of Desert Storm

The Marshall Islands issued a flood of commemorative dollars throughout the early 1990s, exploiting its status as a self-governing territory in free association with the United States to produce coins with nominal legal tender status but no practical circulation. This piece was struck while the Gulf War ceasefire was barely months old — a fast-turnaround issue timed to meet collector demand while public enthusiasm for Operation Desert Storm was still commercially useful.

KM#41 is one of dozens of nearly identical issues from this program. The brass composition kept production costs low against a $10 face value no one ever spent.