10 Pa'anga - Taufa'ahau Tupou IV Range Rover and Land Rover, 0.917 Gold issue

Tonga's 1985 commemorative gold program was underwritten largely by the Franklin Mint under licensing arrangements that flooded small Pacific nations with collector-targeted issues throughout the late 1970s and 1980s. This piece celebrates Land Rover's then-new Range Rover, which Taufa'ahau Tupou IV had adopted as a favored vehicle — the king, famously one of the heaviest monarchs in recorded history, had practical reasons for preferring heavy-duty transport. The Tongan issues from this period were struck in limited collector quantities and saw no meaningful circulation.