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5 Dollars German South West Africa, Essai
| Issuer | Palau |
|---|---|
| Year | 1999 |
| Type | Coin pattern |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Latin |
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| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Latin |
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| Additional information |
Palau's 1999 palladium essai program was issued during an extraordinary moment in the palladium market — the metal briefly surpassed gold in spot price around 2000–2001, driven by Russian export restrictions and surging automotive catalyst demand. Essai strikes in palladium from this era are genuinely unusual; most sovereign mints avoided the metal precisely because of its price volatility and limited collector familiarity.
The specific reference to German South West Africa grounds this piece in the colonial coinage series Palau issued through the late 1990s, reproducing historical currency types as collector vehicles. KM#23a distinguishes the palladium essai from the standard issue, indicating a separate die trial or pattern striking rather than a circulation or bullion run.