50 Cents

The 1993 introduction of brass-plated steel replaced the nickel-clad steel used in earlier Hong Kong 50-cent pieces, a shift driven partly by cost and partly by the approach of the 1997 handover — the Monetary Authority was quietly rationalizing the coinage ahead of a transition that would leave the territory's currency arrangements deliberately ambiguous. Hong Kong retained its own dollar and its linked exchange rate after reunification, making this one of the few coins to outlast a sovereignty transfer essentially unchanged.