50 Cents - Elizabeth II Ba Bird

The Ba Bird — more precisely the Malaita fantail — holds particular significance in the customary beliefs of several Solomon Islands communities, where its call is read as an omen. This 2024 issue belongs to a broader wave of Pacific nation collector coinage produced under licensing arrangements, with the actual striking almost certainly contracted to a European or Asian private mint rather than any domestic facility. Solomon Islands has no mint of its own.

The black nickel treatment with selective gold plating is a finishing technique that became commercially widespread in collector coinage after roughly 2010.