Tokelau Ocean Life

Along with the transition of the Lunar series from Mayer Mint in Germany to Sunshine mint in the United States, Tokelau also began a new bullion series focusing on the ocean life surrounding the islands. They partnered with Treasures of Oz to produce the series. From the beginning, the series has been minted by Highland Mint.  The series is scheduled to run for 12 issues.

The coins feature ocean life found around the islands. The first year featured tuna while subsequent years depict various sea creatures such as great white sharks, loggerhead turtles, sailfish, barracudas, and leopard sharks. Each coin is minted with 1 Oz .999 fine silver and is legal tender with a denomination of $5. The first year of 2014 contains two varieties. The coins initially were intended to be produced with a proof-like finish. Some of the earliest coins in the run had this finish. However, due to quality issues, partway through production in 2014, the finish changed from proof-like to matte. The proof-like finish seems to be a little harder to locate. The inaugural year also saw the production of the 1/2 Oz version with a mintage of 250,000.  Production mintage has declined drastically from 2019 on due to competition from other world bullion series.

The year brought with it a change in the series. The series was initially developed by Australian company Treasures of Oz, with the silver coins struck by the Highland Mint and gold mini-coins by B.H. Mayer. Starting in 2020, the series became an APMEX project, with a new design style of both the reverse and the obverse of the coins; a large one-ounce version of each design in gold was also introduced.

Silver Bullion Mintage

Design

Obverse: The obverse features the right-profile portrait of Queen Elizabeth II from Ian Rank-Broadley, as well as the image of a wooden tackle box, traditionally used by fishermen from Tokelau. A small banner below the box contains the words Tokelau mot e Atua, which translates to Tokelau for God. Inscriptions around the central images read "ELIZABETH II", "TOKELAU XXXX" where XXXX is the year, and the denomination, weight, and purity of "~FIVE DOLLARS - 1OZ 999 FINE SILVER~".

Reverse: The reverse of the coins in the series are detailed and feature the selected sea creatures in their natural habitat. Above the images, the coins reverse face includes the English-language name of the ocean wildlife, as well as the local dialect. "TOKELAU", the country name, is inscribed directly below the image.