The Galápagos Islands have no autonomous monetary authority — this piece was issued under Ecuador's broader framework of numismatic licensing, targeting the collector market rather than any circulation need. X# references in the Standard Catalog denote "exonumia" or fantasy/local issues, and this falls squarely into that category: a privately facilitated commemorative timed to the 2009 bicentennial of Darwin's birth and the 150th anniversary of On the Origin of Species.
Darwin visited the archipelago for just five weeks in 1835.
The Galápagos Islands have no autonomous monetary authority — this piece was issued under Ecuador's broader framework of numismatic licensing, targeting the collector market rather than any circulation need. X# references in the Standard Catalog denote "exonumia" or fantasy/local issues, and this falls squarely into that category: a privately facilitated commemorative timed to the 2009 bicentennial of Darwin's birth and the 150th anniversary of On the Origin of Species.
Darwin visited the archipelago for just five weeks in 1835.