5 Dollars Sydney Opera House

Palau's currency is issued under a Compact of Free Association with the United States — the country uses the US dollar as legal tender and has no central bank of its own. These silver commemoratives exist entirely outside any monetary function, produced by contract mints for the collector market and carrying face values that bear no relationship to economic reality in Ngerulmud or anywhere else.

The Sydney Opera House was completed in 1973 after fourteen years of construction and a cost overrun exceeding ten times the original estimate — a procurement disaster that drove architect Jørn Utzon to resign in 1966 and never return to see the finished building.