200 Dollars Manta Ray

Palau began issuing collector coins in 1994 following a licensing agreement with the private firm American Mint, which managed design and distribution almost entirely outside normal national mint channels. The manta ray issue belongs to Palau's early marine life series, a program built explicitly for the international collector market rather than domestic circulation — Palau had no meaningful coin-using economy to speak of.

One troy ounce of .999 gold at a $200 face value was a transparent fiction even in 1999, when spot gold sat well below that figure.