5 Dollars - Elizabeth II Takin

The takin — a goat-antelope native to the eastern Himalayas and a national animal of Bhutan — was an unusual subject choice for a Cook Islands commemorative, reflecting the early 1990s boom in exotic wildlife coinage from Pacific island mints that had little geographic connection to the animals depicted. Cook Islands, operating under New Zealand's currency umbrella, aggressively licensed its minting authority during this period, producing hundreds of collector-oriented issues aimed squarely at the thematic coin market rather than circulation.