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50 Dollars - Elizabeth II Fridtjof Nansen
| Issuer | Cook Islands |
|---|---|
| Year | 1988 |
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| Value | 50 Dollars |
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| Obverse description | Crowned and draped effigy of Queen Elizabeth II facing right, wearing a diamond tiara and pearl earring with a necklace, as designed by Raphael David Maklouf; the engraver's initials RDM appear at the truncation of the bust. The legend ELIZABETH II arcs along the upper left field and COOK ISLANDS along the upper right, with the date 1988 positioned in the lower exergue. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | A bold portrait bust of Norwegian explorer and humanitarian Fridtjof Nansen dominates the left and central field, depicted facing slightly right and clad in a heavy fur-collared coat befitting his Arctic expeditions. To the right, a detailed rendering of a tall-masted sailing vessel navigates choppy seas, evoking Nansen's famous polar voyages aboard the Fram. The legend FRIDTJOF NANSEN arcs along the upper field, with the denomination $50 inscribed to the upper right. The design is framed by a decorative inner border of short radial lines. |
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| Additional information |
Fridtjof Nansen's selection for this Cook Islands issue reflects his dual status as polar explorer and humanitarian statesman — a combination rare enough to warrant commemoration on its own terms. After his 1888 crossing of Greenland and the 1893–96 Fram expedition, Nansen pivoted entirely to diplomacy, eventually architecting the "Nansen passport," a League of Nations travel document that resettled roughly 450,000 stateless refugees through the 1920s. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922 for that work alone.
Cook Islands ran an aggressive commemorative silver program throughout the late 1980s, contracting primarily through foreign minting and distribution agents targeting collector markets rather than circulation.