This issue belongs to Cook Islands' extensive commemorative program of the late 1980s and early 1990s, during which the island nation licensed its minting authority to produce collector coins with virtually no connection to local commerce. George Vancouver's 1791–1795 Pacific voyage aboard HMS Discovery charted the Northwest Coast of North America with a precision that corrected substantial errors in Spanish charts — his survey of what is now British Columbia remained the navigational standard for decades.
This issue belongs to Cook Islands' extensive commemorative program of the late 1980s and early 1990s, during which the island nation licensed its minting authority to produce collector coins with virtually no connection to local commerce. George Vancouver's 1791–1795 Pacific voyage aboard HMS Discovery charted the Northwest Coast of North America with a precision that corrected substantial errors in Spanish charts — his survey of what is now British Columbia remained the navigational standard for decades.