Hawaii - Museum Gallery

The regular series of Hawaiian coins were all struck during the 'Kingdom' period. The islands were not ceded to the United States until 1898 and attained territory status in 1900. The territory was declared a state in 1959. King Kamehameha I [The Great; united the islands]. OB: King Kalakaua I - 1883; Rx: legend "UA MAUKE EA O KA AINA I KA PONO" - "UMI KENETA".
This 10 Cent pieces was only struck in the year 1883, as were all the regular issues. The 10 c piece [UMI KENETA] had the lowest mintage at 250k. After the Islands reached territory status a great percentage of the silver coins were collected and melted. Many are found that are badly worn, indicating that many circulated long after U.S. coinage, of the same weight and fineness, was introduced.
Prior to Chief Engraver Charles E. Barber's creation of dies and hubs for Hawaiian silver coinage dated 1883 (and the subsequent production of the dime, eighth dollar, quarter, and silver dollar) the Kingdom of Hawaii had little knowledge of legitimate circulating coinage. True, King Kamehameha III introduced a currency system to the islands in 1846, but the lone shipment of hapa hanele, one cent coins, was met with such disdain by the locals for its lackluster appearance that "that many...threw them into the ocean rather than accept them as payment" (Breen, 1988).
The most comprehensive attempt to supply the nation with stable money came during the reign of Kalakaua, which saw the introduction of silver dimes, quarters, halves, and dollars bearing his portrait. The Hawaiian silver coinage, consisting of denominations identical to United States coinage, was composed of identical weight and size standards, thus there was no need to make additional planchets.
500,000 Hawaiian dollars were produced in 1883. After the overthrow of Liliuokalani and the subsequent annexation of Hawaii by the United States, the Hawaiian coins were largely withdrawn from circulation and melted; the silver dollar, owing to its silver value, was most affected by this policy: 453,622 were melted. This left the dollar with a net distribution of just 46,348 business strikes along with a small number of proofs.