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50 Dollars - Elizabeth II English seaman Sir Martin Frobisher
| Issuer | Cook Islands |
|---|---|
| Year | 1993 |
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| Shape | Round |
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| Obverse description | Right-facing effigy of Queen Elizabeth II wearing the Girls of Great Britain and Ireland tiara, with a pearl drop earring and necklace visible, rendered in the fourth definitive portrait by Raphael Maklouf. The legend ELIZABETH II arcs along the left field and COOK ISLANDS along the right, with the date 1993 positioned in the exergue below the truncation. |
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| Obverse script | Latin |
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| Additional information |
Frobisher made three voyages to the Canadian Arctic between 1576 and 1578, nominally in search of the Northwest Passage but increasingly consumed by the delusion that black rock he'd found on Baffin Island was gold-bearing ore. He returned to England on his second and third voyages with hundreds of tons of it. Assayers eventually confirmed it was worthless pyrite and mica. The financial ruin that followed effectively ended Elizabethan enthusiasm for Arctic exploration for a generation.
Cook Islands issued extensively in this period under licensing arrangements that had little to do with local monetary need — this is a bullion-adjacent commemorative aimed squarely at the collector market.