1 Tala - Tanumafili II XXII Summer Olympics

Issued to commemorate the 1980 Moscow Olympics, this piece was produced at a moment of acute political tension — the Games were boycotted by the United States and roughly 65 other nations following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979. Samoa participated in the boycott, which gives the coin an odd quality: an island nation commemorating an event its own athletes did not attend.

Tanumafili II, who authorized the issue, held the position of O le Ao o le Malo — head of state for life — a title formalized under the 1962 constitution at independence.