10 Vatu John F. Kennedy

Vanuatu has issued a long series of small-format gold pieces nominally denominated in vatu but priced entirely for the collector market — the 10 vatu face value bears no relationship to the gold content or the domestic economy. Kennedy appears on this issue as part of a recurring international figure program, a revenue-generating mechanism the Reserve Bank of Vanuatu has employed since the 1990s. The underlying monetary authority is real; the numismatic rationale is thin.