20 Dollars - Elizabeth II 1996 Olympics-Pole Vaulter and Runner

Cook Islands became one of the more prolific issuers of commemorative silver in the 1990s, licensing Olympic themes well ahead of the Games themselves — this piece was struck three years before the 1996 Atlanta Games opened. The island nation's aggressive commemorative program during this decade was driven almost entirely by export sales to collectors, with virtually no domestic circulation.

Atlanta 1996 was the centennial Olympic Games, a fact that generated unusually intense global merchandising pressure and a correspondingly crowded commemorative market.