5 Cents Koruniat Island

DesPac — Destroyer Pacific — was the informal designation for destroyer forces operating out of various Southwest Pacific bases during the later stages of the war. Officers' clubs at remote island installations routinely issued their own scrip to manage canteen and bar transactions, keeping hard currency out of circulation in environments where it would disappear fast. Koruniat Island sits off the coast of New Britain; by 1944 it was within the Allied operational zone following the isolation of the main Japanese garrison at Rabaul.

These club issues were never officially sanctioned by any military finance authority, which is precisely why so few survive — they were redeemed, discarded, or simply lost when the unit moved on.