Fiji has issued legal tender collector coins under licensing agreements with foreign IP holders since at least the 1990s, and the Reserve Bank has leaned heavily into pop culture series in the 2020s as the bullion-and-novelty market expanded. Popeye, created by E.C. Segar for the Thimble Theatre comic strip in 1929, is owned by King Features Syndicate, whose licensing arm has placed the character on coins from multiple Pacific island jurisdictions in recent years — a deliberately small-denomination face value keeping these within legal tender technicality while pricing them well above it.
Fiji has issued legal tender collector coins under licensing agreements with foreign IP holders since at least the 1990s, and the Reserve Bank has leaned heavily into pop culture series in the 2020s as the bullion-and-novelty market expanded. Popeye, created by E.C. Segar for the Thimble Theatre comic strip in 1929, is owned by King Features Syndicate, whose licensing arm has placed the character on coins from multiple Pacific island jurisdictions in recent years — a deliberately small-denomination face value keeping these within legal tender technicality while pricing them well above it.