50 Cents - Elizabeth II 3rd portrait

Fiji's shift to nickel-plated steel for this denomination came as part of a 2009 coinage reform that also reduced physical size across several values — a cost-driven response to rising base metal prices that had made the older copper-nickel coins worth more as raw material than as currency. The third portrait of Elizabeth II, by Ian Rank-Broadley, had been in circulation on Fijian coinage since 1996 but was retired shortly after this issue when Fiji adopted a wholly new national series in 2012 following the country's suspension from the Pacific Islands Forum.