50 Dollars MiG 15

The Marshall Islands operated a prolific commemorative program throughout the 1990s, issuing legal-tender collector coins with almost no connection to the islands' own economy or history. This piece honors the MiG-15, the Soviet jet fighter that shocked Western air forces when it appeared over Korea in November 1950 — outperforming every UN aircraft then in theater and forcing the rapid deployment of the F-86 Sabre as a direct counter. The MiG-15's airframe was partly derived from research captured from German aeronautical engineers after 1945, and its engine was a reverse-engineered Rolls-Royce Nene, sold to the Soviets by Britain in 1947 over strenuous American objection.