Catalog
20 Tālā
| Issuer | Monetary Board of Western Samoa |
|---|---|
| Year | 1984 |
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| Currency | Tala (1967-date) |
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| Obverse description | The obverse carries a central vignette of a fisherman casting a traditional throwing net, set against a view of the Samoan coastline with sea and distant hills. The national flag of Samoa appears in the upper left corner, while bilingual inscriptions in Samoan and English frame the design. Denomination text reading LUASEFULU TĀLĀ / TWENTY TĀLĀ appears in the lower portion, with the issuing authority MONETARY BOARD OF WESTERN SAMOA rendered along the border. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse presents a vignette of the Fono (Parliament) House in Apia, the seat of the Samoan legislature, rendered in a detailed line engraving style. The national coat of arms of Samoa is positioned to one side, with the national flag incorporated into the design. Bilingual denomination and authority inscriptions in Samoan and English appear along the upper and lower borders. |
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| Comments |
Western Samoa's Monetary Board was established in 1984 to take over central banking functions from the Bank of Western Samoa, and this note belongs to that transitional period when the issuing authority itself was newly constituted. Thomas De La Rue had printed Samoan currency since the tālā's introduction in 1967, and the relationship was uninterrupted through the changeover.
The P#23 series is relatively short-lived — the Monetary Board was itself superseded by the Central Bank of Samoa in 1984, meaning the window of issue for this authority was extremely narrow. Surviving examples with clean folds are not common precisely because so few were printed before the institutional change required new note designs under the new issuer name.