2 Pounds - Elizabeth II Peros Banhos Island

Peros Banhos is one of the Chagos Islands atolls from which the entire indigenous Chagossian population was forcibly removed between 1968 and 1973 to make way for the U.S. military base at Diego Garcia. The displaced community, relocated primarily to Mauritius and the Seychelles, has fought legal battles for the right to return ever since — with UK courts ruling both for and against them at different stages. Issuing collectible coinage in the name of these uninhabited, restricted-access islands carries an uncomfortable irony that the catalog record cannot convey.