50 Seniti - George Tupou V FAO

Issued under the FAO coin program, which ran for decades as a United Nations initiative encouraging member states to mint coins promoting food security and agricultural development. Tonga's participation placed a Pacific microstate into a numismatic series that ultimately included over 100 countries. George Tupou V, who died in March 2012, had only recently overseen Tonga's transition from an absolute to a constitutional monarchy in 2010 — making this one of the final issues bearing his effigy before his death ended the line of direct male succession.