50 Vatu Olympic Games Athens 2004

Vanuatu has no Olympic athletic tradition of note, and its participation in the Athens Games amounted to a handful of competitors across track and field. This coin is frankly a revenue issue — small Pacific island nations routinely license their minting authority to produce commemoratives with no domestic circulation intention, sold directly to the international collector market through contracted distributors.

KM#53 was struck in 2003, a full year before the Athens Games opened.