5 Dollars Powerful Empires

Kiribati adopted its own coinage in 1979 upon independence from Britain, but the islands had no meaningful pre-colonial monetary tradition — which makes commemorative issues like this one effectively the entirety of the nation's numismatic output. The "Powerful Empires" series was produced for the collector market and had no circulation role whatsoever in a country whose GDP at the time ranked among the lowest in the Pacific.

Struck by the Pobjoy Mint under contract, as were most Kiribati collector issues of this period.