10 Tala Hans Christian Andersen

Issued as part of a wave of small-format gold commemoratives that flooded the Pacific island mint-program market in the late 2000s, this piece has no particular connection to Samoa — Andersen was Danish, died in 1875, and the Central Bank of Samoa's involvement is purely a licensing arrangement. Such programs were common vehicles for bullion dealers and coin marketers seeking sovereign backing for product lines aimed at collector rather than circulatory demand.