Marshall Islands Peace

The Marshall Islands began issuing collector coinage in the late 1980s under a licensing arrangement that effectively outsourced production to the U.S. — most pieces were struck at the Sunshine Mining facility or similar private mints rather than any government facility on the islands themselves. The 1995 Peace issue coincided with the fiftieth anniversary commemorations of the end of World War II, a fraught occasion for the Marshallese, whose atolls served as major staging grounds for Pacific operations and whose population endured significant disruption under Japanese occupation before American forces retook the islands beginning in early 1944.

Bikini Atoll, part of the Marshall Islands, would become a nuclear test site just a year after the war's end.