2 Pounds - Elizabeth II Captain James Cook

South Georgia's administrative history is tangled enough that coinage from this territory occupies an odd corner of British numismatics. The island was the base from which Shackleton launched his famous 1916 open-boat journey to seek rescue, and Cook himself landed there in January 1775, claiming it for the Crown and noting grimly that it was of no commercial value whatsoever — a judgment the sealing and whaling industries would soon reverse.

KM#18 is part of a broader commemorative program the territory used to generate revenue given the near-total absence of a resident civilian population to tax.