The Chatham Islands — a New Zealand territory roughly 800 kilometers east of the South Island — hold the distinction of being among the first inhabited places on Earth to cross the International Date Line into each new day. That geographic quirk was the entire commercial logic behind this issue: the islands marketed themselves aggressively as the first place to see the year 2000, a claim that generated a minor tourism and collectibles industry in the late 1990s. The coin arrived a year late by any reckoning.
The Chatham Islands — a New Zealand territory roughly 800 kilometers east of the South Island — hold the distinction of being among the first inhabited places on Earth to cross the International Date Line into each new day. That geographic quirk was the entire commercial logic behind this issue: the islands marketed themselves aggressively as the first place to see the year 2000, a claim that generated a minor tourism and collectibles industry in the late 1990s. The coin arrived a year late by any reckoning.