150 Rupees Kingdom Anniversary, 0.916 Gold

The Cocos (Keeling) Islands in 1977 remained under the administration of the Clunies-Ross family, who had governed the atoll as a private fiefdom since the early nineteenth century. John Clunies-Ross had established a coconut plantation economy there in the 1820s, and his descendants continued to issue their own local currency — the rupee — redeemable only at the family-controlled company store. This coin commemorates the 150th anniversary of that dynastic settlement, making it less a national issue than a piece of private commemorative coinage authorized by a family that functionally owned both the land and its inhabitants.

Australia formally purchased the islands from the last Clunies-Ross heir in 1978, one year after this coin was struck.