Palau 1992 5 dollars
This specimen was lot 75230 in Stack's Bowers May 2026 World Premier Collectors Choice Auction (Costa Mesa, CA, May 2026), where it sold for $4,880. The catalog description[1] noted, "PALAU. Gold 5 Dollars Essai (Pattern), 1992. NGC PROOF-69 Ultra Cameo. Marine Life Protection Series, colorized." Palau is a Pacific island nation with a population of about 18,000. First annexed by Spain in 1885, it passed to Germany (1899), Japan (1919) and the United States (1947) before obtaining partial independence in 1994. As the US dollar is used on the islands, Palauan coins are all NCLT's. Numista comments, in phrasing likely taken from a sales booklet, "The Palau commemorative series 'Marine Life Protection' is one of the longest running color coin series in the world. With the first coin issued in 1992 (“Year Of Marine Life Protection”) the series has seen many releases to date featuring tropical marine creatures and exotic mermaid and neptune designs that changed each year." We don't know what mint made and marketed these.
Recorded mintage: 6,000 in silver plus a few in gold.
Specification: KM 2: 25 g, 0.900 fine silver, 37.5 mm diameter, reeded edge; KM E2: 25.97 g, 0.999 fine gold, 0.7019 troy oz AGW.
Catalog reference: KM 2, KM-E2.
- Michael, Thomas, and Tracy L. Schmidt, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1901-2000, 47th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2019.
- [1]Orsini, Matt, Kyle Ponterio and Jeremy Bostwick, May 2026 World Premier Collectors Choice Online Auction - Ancients, World Coins & World Paper Money, Costa Mesa, CA: Stack's Bowers Galleries, Inc., 2026.
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