Mystery of the 1994 Cook Islands Circulating Coinage (NOT the NCLTs)

I know this subject has been broached before and probably not many care, but the standard currency metal coins of 1994 Cook Islands seem to be decidedly elusive & wonder if they were ever actually released. On top of that, their proof versions which I have not seen individually appear very rare as a set.
This coinage was evidently contracted out and there were supposedly authorised 20,000 mint sets of circulation quality coins (1c through $2) and another authorised 200 proof sets of said coinage, along with many hundreds of thousands struck for circulation.
If you look in the old Krause or NGC or Numista the individual coins are valued at just a couple of dollars each & these figures and values have been propagated on other sites.

HOWEVER, I have severe doubts that even a few of these in any of the above (currency, unc. sets, proof sets) were ever actually released. I could find neither hide nor hair evidence of them so perhaps of interest to those such as myself that love the mystery and the hunt for rare and inexpensive pieces....
I did many years ago hear rumours of said scarcity and got the proof set of that year, and have my own mystery as not sure just what I did with it! LOL

 

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I couldn't even find evidence of sets when I did research for my list of coins for my date run, so you know more than I do. I doubt they were issued to circulation, at least. Ucoin does have one example of a 1994 $1 that doesn't look like a proof to me.

A consequence of not many people caring about base metal beyond maybe type collecting. You'll find a lot of coins in Krause from the 70s-90s that don't actually exist, like the alleged 1983 Liberia pieces we've discussed in the past.