100 Dollars - Elizabeth II 81st Birthday of the Emperor

Issued to mark the 81st birthday of Emperor Akihito in 2014, this Cook Islands gold piece belongs to a category of commemorative issues produced under licensing arrangements common to small Pacific nations — Cook Islands, Niue, Palau — whose mint programs are operated almost entirely by private European minting houses, chiefly the Münze Österreich and B.H. Mayer's Kunstprägeanstalt. The actual connection to Cook Islands sovereignty is nominal; the coins are legal tender by statute but were never intended for domestic circulation.

At 15.55 g of .9999 fine gold, the specification matches a standard half-troy-ounce bullion blank.