Catalog
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| Issuer | Cook Islands |
|---|---|
| Year | 1988 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Dollar (1972-date) |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | JOHN CABOT $50 FM |
| Edge | Reeded |
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| Additional information |
Issued in 1988 to mark the 490th anniversary of John Cabot's 1497 voyage to North America aboard the Matthew, this Cook Islands commemorative sits within a crowded field of late-1980s Commonwealth silver issues capitalizing on exploration anniversaries. Cabot's landfall — almost certainly Newfoundland or Cape Breton Island, though historians still dispute the exact location — was made under a commission from Henry VII, who paid him a modest £10 upon return. Bristol merchants, not the Crown, financed the voyage itself.