5 Dollars - Elizabeth II Orpheus

Part of a broad Cook Islands micro-gold program that flooded the collector market in the late 2000s, these fractional .999 pieces were struck in the Marshall Islands under license rather than on the islands themselves. Cook Islands has no mint of its own and has long used its nominal sovereignty to license commemorative and bullion issues commercially.

At half a gram, the gold content is negligible by bullion standards — the premium over spot has always been the story here, not the metal.