4 Dollars - Elizabeth II Poodle

Part of a sprawling series of fractional gold novelty issues produced for Cook Islands by the European minting trade — primarily Scottsdale Mint and various Austrian and Swiss contractors — these pieces are legal tender in name only, with face values bearing no relationship to metal content. Cook Islands has long served as an obliging issuer for this type of collector-market product, lending nominal sovereignty to issues that will never see the archipelago.