Moved this from Paper Money to World Coins. The Cook Islands, Liberia, Niue, etc. strike a large number of NCLT (non-circulating legal tender) coins to sell to American collectors. That's what this is all about. Personally, I prefer when a country features its own history or flora and fauna and people on a commemorative coin, but these NCLT issues are apparently a cash cow for the issuing countries, so why not. Some of them can be pretty interesting. They run the gamut from tacky to "gimmicky-but-cool" to beautiful.
With Cook Islands, you also have to be very careful to avoid their misleading ".24 Fine" gold coins which are being sold as solid gold...they are 24% gold.
Why Cook Islands? Perhaps because their population (~17k people) and economy are tiny. So their monetary independence and ability to make coins for export to collectors are relatively a much bigger deal there than to most nations. I suspect many of the other Polynesian statelets have similar incentives.
That double eagle shares the reverse as this one. This one features Morgan liberty alongside Peace liberty on the obverse and having the same reverse hence my "3 coins in one" description.
I'm going to assume the National collector's mint is making these? Or is it just a name and their really not even a mint.???
They mint coins for some small relatively poor countries for collectors. It is a large source of income for these countries. Like the one you show which I believe was only struck in 2019 and 2020 only in Proof issues with the number struck unverified
I kind of like these NCLTs. I have a low mintage (250) “coin” of Baker Island, which ironically isn’t even inhabited
Wow. Thought this was truly a "private" fantasy issue, didn't realize that this was actual NCLT. Cook Islands has ton of these . I would probably go with the AC/DC issue if I was in the market. https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces153051.html
Indeed ;overhyped and overpriced " junk". Australia suffers this malaise courtesy of our " Macquarie Mint". People are lured/seduced into buying these "pretty trinkets" They don't read the extra fine print and don't realise they will never recoup their "investment" at resell time.