Issued to mark Samoa's participation in the 1982 Brisbane Commonwealth Games, this was one of several Pacific island nations producing commemorative silver in the early 1980s as a source of foreign currency revenue — a practice that generated far more coins than collectors and left most examples in original packaging rather than circulation. Tanumafili II, who co-held the O le Ao o le Malo title from 1963 and became sole head of state after Tupua Tamasese Meaole's death, served longer than any other Commonwealth head of state of his era, dying in office in 2007.
Issued to mark Samoa's participation in the 1982 Brisbane Commonwealth Games, this was one of several Pacific island nations producing commemorative silver in the early 1980s as a source of foreign currency revenue — a practice that generated far more coins than collectors and left most examples in original packaging rather than circulation. Tanumafili II, who co-held the O le Ao o le Malo title from 1963 and became sole head of state after Tupua Tamasese Meaole's death, served longer than any other Commonwealth head of state of his era, dying in office in 2007.