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50 Vatu Pedro Fernandez de Quiros
| Issuer | Reserve Bank of Vanuatu |
|---|---|
| Year | 1992 |
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| Shape | Round |
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| Reverse description | The reverse depicts the Portuguese-Spanish explorer Pedro Fernández de Quirós kneeling on a shoreline in period costume, raising a Latin cross aloft in his right hand. In the middle ground, two sailors row a longboat through the surf toward the beach, while a large square-rigged galleon under full sail is depicted to the left in the background. A rocky headland is visible to the right. The curved legend 'FERNANDEZ DE QUIROS' arcs across the upper field, and the denomination '50 VATU' is inscribed along the lower border. |
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| Reverse lettering | FERNANDEZ DE QUIROS 50 VATU |
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| Additional information |
Pedro Fernández de Quirós reached the New Hebrides archipelago in 1606 during a Spanish expedition from Peru, convinced he had found the mythical southern continent — Terra Australis. He hadn't. The islands he named Austrialia del Espíritu Santo were dismissed by his own crew, and Quirós never returned. Nearly four centuries later, those same islands became Vanuatu upon independence in 1980, one of the few Pacific nations to emerge from joint Anglo-French colonial administration, a genuinely awkward arrangement known as the Condominium that locals called the "Pandemonium."
This 1992 issue belongs to the Reserve Bank's early commemorative program, coinciding with the quincentenary wave of Columbus-era exploration coinage flooding world mints that year.