25 Dollars - Elizabeth II Berlin Wall

Issued to mark the twentieth anniversary of the Wall's fall in November 1989, this Cook Islands commemorative belongs to a wave of collector pieces released that year by sovereign mints and licensing intermediaries worldwide. Cook Islands has long served as an issuing authority for the European precious-metals commemorative trade — the coins are legal tender in name, but the real market is the German and Austrian collector base for whom the anniversary carried obvious weight.

At 93.3 grams of .999 silver, the piece was produced by a private minting house under license rather than by any Cook Islands facility.