The Island of Niue Has Switched to Imperial Credits

?From Movies.com:

In what sounds like a match made in monarchy heaven, the Galactic
Empire and the British Empire are about to team up – on currency.

The South Pacific Island state of Niue is ready to produce a set of
legal tender coins featuring not only the Queen of England, but
characters from George Lucas’ Star Wars films.
The entire collection will total 40 coins in all and be produced by the
New Zealand mint. Each coin has a face value of NZ$2 (?1), but don’t
expect to see them floating around in circulation – the silver content
in each piece of currency makes them worth far more.

The series will be sold in sets of four coins, each containing 1 oz. of
silver, and will sell for NZ$469 (?235). Clearly, this aimed at
collectors. If that price is to steep (is there really such a thing when
it comes to Star Wars collectibles?) there will also be more affordable coins – albeit ones struck in a silver-plated base metal.

The move was inspired not so much by Niue’s love of Star Wars
(we couldn’t find any factual data corroborating how the island’s 1400
citizens feel about the films or George Lucas), but by a need to fill
the government’s bank account.

Huh. You can see all the coins here (thanks, CD!), which will be sold in Niue through 2014. You know, the joy for me in owning Star Wars-themed legal tender would be spending said Star Wars-themed legal tender — to actually give someone a coin with Darth Vader’s face on it, and getting some kind of good or service in return. Because otherwise, it’s just like every other Star Wars collectible coin, in which the only financial service it can do you is on eBay. Thanks to everyone who sent this in.