5 Rufiyaa International Year of the Reef

The International Year of the Reef was a 1997 global campaign coordinated by the International Coral Reef Initiative, and the Maldives — whose entire territory sits barely a meter above sea level on average — had more immediate political motivation than most nations to participate. Rising sea temperatures and coral bleaching had already begun visibly damaging the atolls by the mid-1990s, making this issue something closer to policy statement than ceremonial coinage.