1881 (ca. 1900) Hawaii Five Cents. Canadian Copy. Nickel. Thick Planchet. Proof-64 (PCGS). A handsome silver-gray example with a dusting of pale gold tinting to both sides. Sharply struck with satiny finish throughout. Original 1881 Hawaii five-cent coins are rare patterns struck to the tune of approximately 200 pieces at the insistence of a nickel mine owner in New Caledonia who met with King David Kalakaua on the kings round the world trip in 1881 and 1882. The mine owner suggested the coinage, and dies were made in Paris where the pattern coins were struck. Writing in the second edition of <em>Hawaiian Money</em>, Donald Medcalf and Ronald Russell state:<p><em>"Five cent pieces similar in design to the original Hawaiian 1881 five cent nickel pieces were struck in thin and thick nickel (1.4 and 2.7 mm), thin and thick aluminum (1.42 and 3.1 mm) and thin copper (1.7 mm), all in proof. Struck from different dies, they can be easily distinguished by absence of a cross on top of the crown."</em><p>This is one of the thick planchet nickel pieces to which the authors refer, and it would fit nicely into an advanced collection of Hawaiiana.
