5 Rufiyaa FAO, Gold Proof

This piece was struck as part of the FAO coinage program — a United Nations initiative that ran through the 1970s encouraging member nations to mint coins promoting food security and agricultural development. The Maldives issue coincided almost exactly with the country's transition to a republic in 1968 and the establishment of the Monetary Authority in 1981, placing this coin in an administratively transitional period for the issuing body named on it.

Gold proofs from small-nation FAO issues typically saw mintages in the low hundreds. The Fr#2 designation confirms this is the primary gold type in Friedberg's gold coin reference — not a variant.