50 Cents - Elizabeth II Dolphins

Cook Islands entered the collector bullion market aggressively in the late 1990s, issuing a proliferation of small-format .999 silver pieces that exploited the territory's authority to produce legal tender while targeting overseas buyers almost exclusively. Domestic circulation was never the intent — these were designed from the outset for the numismatic trade, a practice that drew periodic scrutiny from New Zealand, which manages Cook Islands' foreign affairs and whose Reserve Bank had complicated views on the arrangement.