Northern Mariana Islands

The Northern Mariana Islands are islands located in the northern part of the Mariana Islands in the western Pacific. This place is not a U.S. state but holds the status of a “U.S. Commonwealth.” It is a somewhat special kind of U.S. territory that belongs to the United States while also having its own government and powers of self-rule.

The reverse of the coin depicts a latte stone (latte stone) pillar, two white fairy terns, a Carolinian canoe, and a mwar (mwar, a garland worn on the head) placed near the shore. This coin bears no separate motto.

The latte stone is a stone pillar used in the traditional architecture of this region’s native people, while the fairy terns, the Carolinian canoe, and the mwar symbolize the island’s nature, its maritime culture, and its traditions, respectively. Each one warmly shows a way of life that has long been carried on in these islands.

The Northern Mariana Islands became a U.S. Commonwealth in 1978. Before that they were under a trusteeship jointly administered by the international community, and they became a Commonwealth when the residents themselves chose to join hands with the United States. Among the six coins of the series, it is thus the last to have formed its bond with the United States.

Within the small coin, a stone pillar and a bird, a canoe and a garland come together, capturing the nature and traditions of the western Pacific islands like a single painting. Looking closely at the coin, you quietly come to meet the distinctive culture held by these faraway Pacific islands.