Fiji To Unveil New Coins And Notes December 2012

Fiji is populated by a majority of people of Pacific Islander descent, and a minority of people of Indian descent, who used to get along together quite well.
The folks of Indian descent were originally brought from India to help as cheap labour in the sugar cane industry, whose descendants came to have strong influence in the business affairs of the Country.

The behaviour of the current Fijian Government was not liked all that much, by other Countries in the British Commonwealth. It has some of the characteristics of a military dictatorship, that seems to be tolerated by most of the majority native Pacific Islander population. The Civilian Police Force and the Fijiian Military Services were always strongly represented by people from the Pacific Islander population

Christianity is strongly expressed in the majority Pacific Islander population and in the current Government as well.

The current module range of the coinage is too large, similar to Australia's. It is my guess that the new module range will more strongly reflect that of New Zealand. I think it is their desire for the Queen to officially remain as the Official Head of State, but her image is to disappear from the coins and notes, and will be replaced with something more distinctly Fijian.

Island by island, the sun is finally setting on the British Empire........

I definitely can't wait to see them. For commonwealth countries that have a longtime tradition of putting the British monarch on their currency, that can be a pretty big void to fill. But then, many states have usually replaced her with a national emblem. I know PNG has always been a member of the Commonwealth yet they have never put the queen on a coin or note to my knowledge.

Belize commissioned Franklin Mint to do a set with local birds back in the 70's which I really like, even though in the long run they stuck with using the queen, and one of the earliest effigies I might add... kind of unique. It's a big move, so when a country wants to use local images instead it always sparks my interest. I hope to maybe see some nice birds and reptiles.

As for the politics of the matter, Fiji has been expelled and then reinstated into the Commonwealth several times since 1987. New governments keep coming into power, often ones that aren't considered popular by larger Pacific nations like Australia and New Zealand. After being pushed out by the Commonwealth enough times and being warned about getting removed from the Pacific Forum I think these measures are probably political moves to more or less show how much the current authorities don't really care and they can carry on with or without them. Hopefully these ethnic tensions get settled sooner rather than later. I don't live in Fiji, so I can't really claim to know what's going on.

Politics and the coining of money always go hand in hand though... you can almost certainly count on international politics to make collecting quite interesting. New regime, new coins!