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This chain of islands in the Indian Ocean is about three feet above sea level, and scientists fear it could be submerged by 2050. A $63 million buffer built in the 1990s hasn't solved the problem, so the government is in talks to relocate all 386,000 of its residents to either Sri Lanka, Australia or India. That would end the Maldives' tourism industry-more than 600,000 people visit annually-which accounts for 30 percent of the country's gross domestic product.

PPS  We gratefully acknowledge Percy Phiroze Siganporia for submitting images and information used in this section.

CM    We gratefully acknowledge Claudio Marana for images used in this section.

TH    We gratefully acknowledge Tod Hunt for images used in this section.

DL    We gratefully acknowledge Dmitriy Litvak for his expert proofreading and identification of section errors and deficiencies.

PNC  We gratefully acknowledge the P Neumann Collection for images. 

TH    We gratefully acknowledge Todd Hunt for images.

OY    We gratefully acknowledge OY for images.

PC    We gratefully acknowledge PC for images. Please visit his excellent Maldives banknotes website.