Samoa's participation in the 1988 Seoul Olympics was limited to a handful of athletes, and the games themselves were shadowed by Ben Johnson's disqualification and the broader doping scandals that followed. Tanumafili II, who had held joint head of state authority since independence in 1962, would go on to become sole O le Ao o le Malo after his co-head's death in 1963 — making him one of the longest-serving heads of state in the Pacific.
KM#70 is one of several bullion-adjacent commemoratives Samoa issued through the late 1980s targeting the collector market rather than circulation.
Samoa's participation in the 1988 Seoul Olympics was limited to a handful of athletes, and the games themselves were shadowed by Ben Johnson's disqualification and the broader doping scandals that followed. Tanumafili II, who had held joint head of state authority since independence in 1962, would go on to become sole O le Ao o le Malo after his co-head's death in 1963 — making him one of the longest-serving heads of state in the Pacific.
KM#70 is one of several bullion-adjacent commemoratives Samoa issued through the late 1980s targeting the collector market rather than circulation.