100 Dollars - Elizabeth II Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan

This piece belongs to a wave of large-format commemorative silver issues Cook Islands produced in the late 1980s and early 1990s, often in collaboration with foreign minting houses targeting the collector market rather than circulation. Magellan's connection to the Pacific makes him a defensible subject for a Pacific island issuer — his fleet's 1521 crossing of that ocean was the first recorded, though Magellan himself died in the Philippines before completing the circumnavigation. His Portuguese nationality is worth noting: he sailed under the Spanish crown after Lisbon rejected his proposal.