1 Cent - Elizabeth II 2nd portrait

The KM#1a designation marks the transition from the original bronze composition to bronze-plated steel — a cost-cutting measure adopted across many Pacific island nations during the early 1980s as raw material costs made small-denomination coinage increasingly uneconomical to produce. Solomon Islands gained independence in 1978, and the Central Bank was still calibrating its coinage infrastructure during this period.

The second portrait of Elizabeth II, by Arnold Machin, was in use from 1968 through the mid-1980s before Ian Rank-Broadley's effigy eventually succeeded it across Commonwealth issues.