10 Rufiyaa FAO

Issued as part of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization coin program, which ran through the 1970s and persuaded dozens of developing nations to mint commemorative pieces promoting agricultural self-sufficiency. The Maldives issue sits among the more obscure entries in the FAO series — a small island economy with fishing, not grain, at its economic core, which made the FAO framing somewhat awkward from the start.

Collector interest in FAO issues has remained modest outside specialist circles, keeping most examples in original mint state simply from lack of handling.