1 Tala - Tanumafili II Weightlifting

Issued for the 1976 Montreal Olympics, this piece was part of a broader wave of commemorative coinage that flooded the market as smaller nations discovered Olympic licensing as a revenue stream during the 1970s. Samoa had only gained independence from New Zealand administration in 1962, and Tanumafili II — who would go on to hold the longest tenure of any head of state in Samoan history — lent his name to a series of issues that were frankly more collector-targeted than circulation-bound.

KM#22 saw limited domestic use. Most examples reached the secondary market through philatelic and numismatic bureaus rather than bank tills.