Country guide
Solomon Islands
A heptagonal dollar and a sea god: the Solomon Islands’ 1977 dollar — Australian-sized cents, a seven-sided $1, and reverses drawn from island culture.
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Coin entries
Coins of Solomon Islands
Every coin entry in this wiki — one tap to the full page.
History & collecting
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- A British protectorate until independence, the Solomons used the Australian pound, then the Australian dollar.
- The Solomon Islands dollar was introduced in 1977, replacing the Australian dollar at par; independence followed on 7 July 1978.
- The 1977 coins: 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 cents and 1 dollar. The cent coins matched their Australian equivalents in size, weight, and composition; the $1 was an equilaterally curved seven-sided cupro-nickel coin.
- Reverses depicted native cultural items — the 10 cents shows Ngoreru, a sea god of the Temotu region.
- Later changes: bronze-plated steel 1–2c (1985); a dodecagonal 50c for the 10th independence anniversary (1988); nickel-clad steel for the 20c, 10c, and 5c (1989–90). The 1 and 2 cents fell out of use with inflation.
- 1977 first series: Royal Mint circulation issues plus Franklin Mint proof and mint sets.
- 1988 50c: twelve-sided, first issued as the independence-anniversary commemorative, later with the national crest.
- The 1977 $1 heptagonal (KM#6) — the signature coin of the series.
- The 10c Ngoreru — the most storied reverse of the first coinage.
- The 1988 first-year dodecagonal 50c.
- For every value question, work from live sold listings on the linked entries, not from printed price lists.
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