50 Vatu The Boudeuse

The Boudeuse was the frigate commanded by Louis Antoine de Bougainville during France's first circumnavigation of the globe, completed in 1769. Vanuatu — then the New Hebrides — was a joint Anglo-French condominium until independence in 1980, and Bougainville's Pacific voyages form part of the islands' colonial contact history. The flowering vine Bougainvillea was named after him following specimens collected on that expedition.

Vanuatu issued several explorer-themed commemoratives in this period as part of a broader Pacific numismatic program popular with coin dealers in the early 1990s.