Catalog
2 Tala Lady Elizabeth and Bobs
| Issuer | Samoa |
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| Year | 1997 |
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| Currency | Tala (1967-date) |
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| Obverse description | The central field displays the coat of arms of Western Samoa, comprising a shield bearing the Southern Cross constellation above stylised ocean waves and a coconut palm, surmounted by a Christian cross. The shield is flanked by two olive branches forming a wreath, and a scroll beneath bears the national motto FAAVAE I LE ATUA SAMOA in raised Latin lettering. The country name SAMOA I SISIFO arcs along the upper periphery, while the denomination $2 appears in the lower field. |
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| Reverse description | The reverse depicts a youthful Lady Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon seated side-saddle upon her pony 'Bobs', rendered in finely detailed relief at the centre of the field. The figure wears period equestrian dress including a wide-brimmed hat and long skirt, her hair flowing loosely. An outer legend arcing around the upper periphery reads QUEEN ELIZABETH THE QUEEN MOTHER, with a secondary inner legend YOUNG LADY ELIZABETH AND 'BOBS' curving below it. A beaded inner circle frames the central motif, flanked by small floral ornaments, and the date 1997 appears in the lower exergue flanked by sprigs. |
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| Additional information |
This piece was struck to honor Lady Elizabeth — better known as "Lady Elizabeth," the iron-hulled sailing barque that ran aground in Whalebone Bay, East Falkland, in 1913 and has sat rusting there ever since — and "Bobs," almost certainly a reference to Field Marshal Lord Roberts, one of the most decorated British commanders of the Victorian era, who died in France in 1914 while visiting Indian troops on the Western Front. The pairing of a shipwreck and a field marshal on a Samoan commemorative remains an idiosyncratic curatorial choice that the catalog record alone cannot explain.