2 Sene - Tanumafili II

Samoa's 1967 decimal coinage — of which this piece is a part — was introduced as the country prepared to shed the pound system inherited from the New Zealand administration that had governed the islands under a League of Nations mandate since 1920. Independence had come in 1962, the first Pacific Island nation to achieve it in the twentieth century, but monetary reform lagged five years behind.

Tanumafili II, whose name this coin bears, would go on to reign until 2007 — the longest-serving head of state in the world at the time of his death.