10 Sene - Tanumafili II Silver Proof issue

Samoa's 1974 proof series was struck to coincide with the country's growing engagement with international numismatic markets during the early 1970s, a period when several Pacific island nations discovered that collector coinage could generate meaningful foreign exchange. Tanumafili II, who held the position of O le Ao o le Malo — head of state — under the 1962 constitution that made Samoa the first Pacific Island nation to gain independence in the twentieth century, would go on to hold that office until his death in 2007, an unusually long tenure that gives coins bearing his authority an exceptionally wide date range.

The .925 silver proof issues of this denomination were produced in limited quantities alongside base-metal circulation strikes, with the proof striking handled outside Samoa itself — the country had no domestic mint capability.