100 Dollars - Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee

Issued to mark Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee, this Cook Islands gold piece appeared during a period when several Pacific and Caribbean nations with nominal ties to the Crown competed to put commemorative gold into the hands of collectors — a revenue strategy with little pretense of circulation intent. Cook Islands was particularly aggressive in this space through the late 1970s, authorizing a succession of limited gold issues that were sold internationally at significant premiums.

The .900 fineness places it in an older European alloy tradition rather than the .9999 standard that would dominate bullion coinage by the 1980s.