5 Cents - Elizabeth II 3rd portrait

Fiji's 1986–87 five-cent issue falls directly across one of the more turbulent moments in the country's modern history: the two military coups of 1987, led by Lieutenant Colonel Sitiveni Rabuka, which suspended the constitution and ultimately severed Fiji's ties with the Commonwealth. The Reserve Bank continued issuing coinage through the political upheaval, making this a transitional series caught between the pre-coup democratic government and the republic that followed.

KM#51 was succeeded relatively quickly by revised coinage reflecting Fiji's changed constitutional status — giving this short two-year run an abrupt end with an identifiable historical cause rather than routine redesign.