Issued to mark the 500th anniversary of Columbus's 1492 landfall, Belize was one of several Caribbean and Central American nations that released commemorative gold in 1992 — a year that produced an unusual glut of such issues across the region. The "Infantry" designation refers to the British Army garrison historically stationed in Belize, maintained through the 1990s largely as a deterrent against Guatemalan territorial claims that dated to the colonial-era Guatemalan constitution of 1945.
Guatemala did not formally drop its claim to Belizean territory until 1991, just one year before this coin was struck.
Issued to mark the 500th anniversary of Columbus's 1492 landfall, Belize was one of several Caribbean and Central American nations that released commemorative gold in 1992 — a year that produced an unusual glut of such issues across the region. The "Infantry" designation refers to the British Army garrison historically stationed in Belize, maintained through the 1990s largely as a deterrent against Guatemalan territorial claims that dated to the colonial-era Guatemalan constitution of 1945.
Guatemala did not formally drop its claim to Belizean territory until 1991, just one year before this coin was struck.