50 Vatu Pedro Fernandez de Quiros

Pedro Fernández de Quirós was the Portuguese-born navigator who, sailing under Spanish commission, became convinced he had found the great southern continent when he anchored at Espíritu Santo in 1606 — the island that would eventually become part of Vanuatu. He had not. What he found was an archipelago, not Terra Australis Incognita, and he left within weeks after relations with the local population deteriorated sharply. Quirós never returned; he spent the rest of his life petitioning the Spanish Crown for a follow-up expedition that was never funded.

The 2005 issue belongs to Vanuatu's recurring commemorative silver program honoring the explorers who contacted the archipelago before European colonization formalized in the late nineteenth century.