2 Dollars - Elizabeth II Siege of Tobruk

Niue has become one of the Pacific's most prolific licensing hubs for commemorative issues, contracting New Zealand's Mint to produce colored and plated collector pieces bearing the Cook Islands' neighbor's name largely as a legal convenience. The Siege of Tobruk — the 241-day Australian-led defense against Rommel's Afrika Korps in 1941 — is legitimate subject matter, but this piece is a modern bullion-adjacent product with no monetary connection to either Niue or the campaign it commemorates.

The Australian garrison that held Tobruk earned the nickname "the Rats of Tobruk" from a German propaganda broadcast intended as an insult, which the defenders adopted with deliberate pride.