In honor of the first Hawaii State Numismatic Association convention, slated for Oct. 7-10, 1964, in Waikiki, the October 1964 issue of Coins magazine was devoted largely to Hawaii-related stories. One of these was “The Romantic Saga of Hawaiian Coins,” as told by Leona Elliot.
“If David Kalakaua Hawaii’s last king, a flashy dresser with courtly manners, a crowned head who loved to drink and kick up his heels, hadn’t wanted to gain the status that his profile on a coin would give him, it is highly doubtful if Hawaii would ever have had a coinage of her own,” Elliot wrote. “After breaking tradition to become the first reigning monarch to visit the Mainland and to make a trip around the world, he went back to his homeland where he was anything but the fair-haired boy and began his long fight for these coins bearing his likeness
