5 Dollars - Elizabeth II Milky Way

Part of a broader Pacific island mint program that leaned heavily into astronomy themes during the mid-2010s, this issue was produced for the collector market rather than circulation. Samoa's numismatic program has long been administered through external minting arrangements, with this piece almost certainly struck by a European or Australian facility on behalf of the Samoan government — a common arrangement for small-nation commemoratives where the issuing authority's primary interest is licensing revenue rather than monetary policy.