5 Dollars - Elizabeth II

Fiji's first post-independence issue, authorized under the Currency Decree of 1969, this series retained the colonial design almost unchanged — a deliberate political decision to maintain public confidence during the transition. The government saw no advantage in disrupting familiarity with the currency at an economically delicate moment.

Two catalog references cover this note because the series straddles independence itself, October 10, 1970 being the dividing line between colonial and sovereign issue. Physically identical, the distinction matters legally and historically rather than visually.