10 Vatu Ornithoptera goliath supremus

Vanuatu's wildlife coin series of the mid-2000s was produced primarily for the collector export market rather than domestic circulation — the archipelago nation has never had the collector base to absorb issues of this type internally. The Goliath birdwing, Ornithoptera goliath, is native to New Guinea rather than Vanuatu itself, which raises the obvious question of why the Reserve Bank issued it at all. The answer is commercial: licensing exotic fauna imagery was a revenue strategy adopted by several small Pacific island issuers during this period.

Silver-plated copper-nickel on a 31.1g flan mimics the heft of a genuine silver crown without the metal cost.