20 Cents - Elizabeth II 2nd portrait, Fairy Terns

Cook Islands gained self-governing status in 1965, and its first independent coinage — including this piece — was introduced in 1972, replacing the New Zealand currency that had circulated there. The Fairy Tern series was designed by James Berry, a New Zealand sculptor responsible for the entire inaugural Cook Islands coin set, which was notable at the time for featuring endemic wildlife rather than purely heraldic or colonial imagery.

The second portrait of Elizabeth II used here is the Arnold Machin effigy, introduced across Commonwealth coinage from 1968 onward.