Country guide
Fiji
From the 1934 George V first coinage to the 1969 decimal dollar — Fiji’s coins track a British colony becoming a republic: wartime San Francisco silver, the missing threepence, and a dollar born at two to the pound.
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Coin entries
Coins of Fiji
Every coin entry in this wiki — one tap to the full page.
History & collecting
The story behind the coins, one tap away.
- British colony from 1874; English currency made sole legal tender in 1881. Australian coins and banknotes circulated from 1910 into the early 1930s.
- Fiji’s first coins arrived in 1934: holed cupro-nickel halfpenny and penny, plus .500 silver sixpence, shilling, and florin — British standard.
- In 1942–1943 the San Francisco mint struck all Fiji coins: brass halfpennies and pennies, and 90% silver sixpence, shilling, and florin to U.S. standard.
- The 1934 series had no threepence — a matter of considerable controversy. In 1947 a dodecagonal nickel-brass 3d was introduced, matching the British threepenny in size and shape.
- Silver gave way to cupro-nickel in 1953–1957. Edward VIII’s only Fiji coin was the 1936 penny; George VI and Elizabeth II followed.
- Decimal day: the Fijian dollar was reintroduced on 15 January 1969 at £1 = FJ$2. Coins of 1, 2, 5, 10, and 20 cents were issued in 1969; the 50-cent piece followed in 1975 and the $1 coin in 1995.
- Elizabeth II’s portrait stayed on the coinage until 2013, when it was replaced with Fijian flora and fauna.
- Colonial: George V 1934–36 first coinage; the Edward VIII 1936 penny (120,000 issued); George VI including the wartime S-mint silver.
- Classic reverses: the turtle (sixpence), the outrigger canoe (shilling), and the colonial coat of arms (florin) — unchanged from 1934 through 1968.
- 1947 threepence: twelve-sided nickel-brass, designed by Reginald George James Berry, showing a traditional bure (thatched building) with palm trees.
- Decimal: the 1969 dollar series (still Elizabeth II), then the 2012/2013 flora-and-fauna series with no monarch on the obverse.
- First-year 1934 silver — the florin, shilling, and sixpence from the first year of Fijian coinage.
- The 1936 Edward VIII penny: 120,000 struck, one-year type, the only Edward VIII coin of Fiji.
- Wartime S-mint silver (1942–43): .900 fine to U.S. standard versus .500 pre-war — check the S mintmark.
- For every value question, work from live sold listings on the linked entries, not from printed price lists.
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