20 Rufiyaa FAO

Issued under the UN Food and Agriculture Organization's coin program, which ran through the 1970s and commissioned dozens of nations to produce commemorative strikes themed around food security and agricultural development. The Maldives' participation was largely ceremonial — the nation's economy at the time was built almost entirely on fishing and limited subsistence agriculture, making the FAO's broader messaging an awkward fit for a low-lying atoll archipelago with almost no arable land.

KM#56 was struck in .500 silver rather than the finer alloys used by wealthier participating nations, a common cost-saving measure for smaller issuers in the FAO program.