1000 Pounds - Elizabeth II Year of the Dragon

Alderney, a British Crown dependency with no central bank and a currency tied to sterling by convention rather than statute, periodically issues large-format gold pieces through a licensing arrangement that has little to do with the island's 2,400-person population and everything to do with the bullion collectibles market. The "1000 Pounds" face value is nominal fiction — no legal tender mechanism would ever see this coin in circulation.

The 2012 Chinese New Year series was one of several issued to capture demand from East Asian collectors and investors around Lunar New Year gifting cycles. The one-kilogram format had become a competitive benchmark among sovereign-adjacent issuers by that point.