20 Vatu James Cook

Vanuatu's coinage history is inseparable from the awkward transitional period following independence from joint Anglo-French colonial administration in 1980 — one of the few condominium arrangements in modern colonial history, where two powers ran parallel legal, educational, and monetary systems simultaneously. The vatu replaced both the New Hebrides franc and the Australian dollar in circulation, and the Reserve Bank's early commemorative program leaned heavily on Pacific exploration themes to project a regional identity rather than a purely domestic one.

Cook's connection to the New Hebrides was substantive: his second voyage charted the island group in 1774. The .500 fineness places this squarely in the budget commemorative market of the early 1990s.