The chimpanzee appeared on the Cook Islands' silver 50 dollars of 1990 as part of the Endangered World Wildlife series. The coins were struck by Britain's Pobjoy Mint, whose PM mark shares the obverse with the RDM initials of Raphael Maklouf beneath the portrait of Elizabeth II, and 25,000 proofs of this design were issued.

Chimpanzees inhabit the forests and savannas of equatorial Africa, from Senegal in the west to Tanzania in the east. A community may number more than a hundred animals, yet its members rarely gather all at once: they move around in small parties whose make-up keeps changing.

Males stay in the community they were born into for life, while females usually move to a neighbouring group as they mature. Fruit forms the bulk of the diet, though chimps also hunt animals, monkeys included. At night they sleep up in the trees in nests of branches and leaves.

Proof strike: mirror fields and a frosted relief.