1 Tala - Tanumafili II Papal Visit

This piece commemorates Pope Paul VI's visit to Samoa in November 1970 — the first papal visit to Oceania. Paul VI's Pacific tour that year also took him to Australia and the Philippines, part of his broader effort to engage the Church's growing Southern Hemisphere membership. Tanumafili II, who is depicted alongside the papal reference, would later become the first head of state to convert to the Bahá'í Faith, though that was still years off when this coin was struck.