Palau began issuing silver five-dollar pieces in 1994 under a licensing arrangement common among small Pacific island nations with no meaningful domestic coin circulation — the program was designed entirely for the collector market, with distribution handled through overseas dealers and the coins never seeing use as currency. The manta ray issue appeared in 1999 as part of the Marine Life Protection series, which ran for over a decade and drew consistent demand from thematic collectors worldwide.
KM#37 was struck at the B.H. Mayer Mint in Germany, which produced the majority of Palau's commemorative output during this period.
Palau began issuing silver five-dollar pieces in 1994 under a licensing arrangement common among small Pacific island nations with no meaningful domestic coin circulation — the program was designed entirely for the collector market, with distribution handled through overseas dealers and the coins never seeing use as currency. The manta ray issue appeared in 1999 as part of the Marine Life Protection series, which ran for over a decade and drew consistent demand from thematic collectors worldwide.
KM#37 was struck at the B.H. Mayer Mint in Germany, which produced the majority of Palau's commemorative output during this period.