10 Vatu Taenaris bioculatus

The Taenaris bioculatus, a large forest-floor butterfly from the islands of Vanuatu and surrounding Melanesia, was selected for this issue as part of the Reserve Bank's ongoing natural history series promoting endemic Pacific fauna. Vanuatu's entomological diversity is genuinely unusual for an archipelago of its size — a consequence of its isolation and the range of microhabitats across 80-odd islands.

Silver-plated copper-nickel was the standard material choice for this collector-oriented series, keeping production costs low while achieving the visual effect of a silver coin at a 10 vatu face value that was never intended for circulation.