100 Dollars October 12, 1492

The date in this coin's name marks Columbus's first landfall in the Americas — most likely at an island the Taíno called Guanahani, which Columbus renamed San Salvador. The precise location remains genuinely contested among historians, with candidates ranging from Watling Island (now legally renamed San Salvador) to Samana Cay, a dispute that was still actively argued in scholarship around the time this coin was struck.

The 1989 issue coincided with preparations for the quincentennial, which would generate an enormous volume of commemorative coinage across multiple nations over the following three years.