5 Dollars Berlin Airlift

Liberia made a cottage industry of commemorative coinage throughout the 1990s, issuing dozens of copper-nickel pieces honoring unrelated foreign historical events — the Berlin Airlift among them. The airlift itself ran from June 1948 to May 1949, during which Western Allied aircraft flew over 200,000 sorties to supply West Berlin after the Soviet Union blocked ground access through East Germany. At its peak, a plane landed every 45 seconds at Tempelhof.

Liberia had no political or logistical connection to the airlift. These issues were produced squarely for the collector market.