20 Cents Beating the Waist Drum

Samoa's current circulating coinage series was redesigned following the country's controversial calendar switch in 2011, when Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi moved the nation across the International Date Line to align trade with Australia and New Zealand — skipping December 29th and 30th entirely. The heavy copper-nickel weight of this issue places it firmly in the territory of circulation coinage designed for durability in a humid Pacific island environment, where coin turnover through local markets and remittance economies runs high.