2 Cents - Elizabeth II 2nd portrait

Cook Islands gained self-governance in free association with New Zealand in 1965, and the first decimal coinage series — including this piece — followed in 1972, replacing the New Zealand currency that had circulated on the islands. The series was struck at the Royal Australian Mint in Canberra. Arnold Machin's second portrait of Elizabeth II, introduced across Commonwealth coinages from 1968, was already aging out of favor by the time this series closed in 1983, when Raphael Maklouf's third effigy began replacing it across the region.