1 Tala - Tanumafili II James Cook

Issued in the first year of Samoan decimal coinage, this piece commemorates Cook's 1722 transit through the region — though Cook never actually landed on Samoa. His ships passed through what was then called the Navigator Islands, named by Bougainville four years earlier. The decimal system itself was adopted at independence in 1962, but the commemorative coinage program took nearly a decade to materialize under Tanumafili II's joint rule with Malietoa Tanumafili I, who died the same year this coin was struck.