2 Dollars - Charles III The Criminal

Niue's numismatic program is a licensing arrangement, not sovereign monetary policy — the island issues collector coins under New Zealand's currency umbrella, contracting designs to private mints that then sell globally through dealers. "The Criminal" refers to Charles III of Naples and Sicily, later Charles III of Spain, whose 1701 accession to the Spanish throne triggered the War of the Spanish Succession, one of the most destructive European conflicts of the early eighteenth century. The nickname comes from Catalan and Aragonese sources, who never forgave the Bourbon consolidation of their traditional privileges under the Nueva Planta decrees of 1707–1716.