3 Dollars Malaita island

Malaita is the most populous island in the Solomon Islands yet has historically received the least infrastructure investment — a grievance that boiled over in the 2021 coup, when Malaitan militias marched on Honiara and burned parts of Chinatown in protest against the central government's pivot toward Beijing. The island has its own secessionist political movement, the Malaita for Democracy coalition, which sought direct aid from the United States as a counter to Chinese influence.

Issuing a coin nominally honoring Malaita in 2025 carries an unavoidable political charge given that backdrop.