50 Seniti - Taufa'ahau Tupou IV Cowley and Morris Cars

In 1985, Tonga issued a series of coins celebrating notable inventions and innovators, a project driven by the enthusiasms of Taufa'ahau Tupou IV, who took an active personal interest in Tonga's unusual coinage program during this period. Cowley and Morris — better known as the Austin Motor Company forerunners — represent an odd pairing for a Pacific island nation, but Tonga's non-circulating legal tender program throughout the 1970s and 1980s routinely targeted foreign collector markets with eclectic subject matter rather than anything connected to Tongan history.

The series was effectively a revenue mechanism, and collector demand in Europe and North America drove the themes.