Item: i82978

Authentic Coin of:

Samoa under Tanumafili II – Head of State: 1 January 1962 – 11 May 2007
1974 Proof Tala (Dollar) 38mm (31.05 grams) .925 Silver (.9264 ASW)
Reference: KM# 19
MALIETOA TANUMAFILI II SAMOA I SISIFO 1974, Bust to left above date.
$1, Palm tree above value.

You are bidding on the exact item pictured, provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of Authenticity.

Malietoa Tanumafili II GCMG CBE (4 January 1913 – 11 May 2007), also called Susuga, was the Malietoa, the title of one of Samoa’s four paramount chiefs, and the head of state, or O le Ao o le Malo, a position that he held for life, of Samoa from 1962 to 2007. He was co-chief of state in 1962 and became the sole head of state on 15 April 1963. At the time of his death, he was the oldest national leader in the world. It is a common mistake that the Malietoa title is a title equivalent to a king-ship. Malietoa is known as the first warrior title, and is respected not as a King but as a Tamaaiga or Ao Mamalu ole Malo.

Early and personal life

He was born in 1913 as the son and third child of his parents, Malietoa Tanumafili I and Momoe Lupeuluiva Meleisea. He was chosen as the Mālietoa in 1940 following his father’s death on 5 July 1939.

Tanumafili was educated at the government run Leififi School in Samoa. He went on to enroll at St. Stephen’s School and Wesley College in Pukekohe, both of which are in New Zealand. Malietoa was an active athlete during his younger years. His favourite sports included boxing, rugby and cricket. Malietoa’s interest in sports continued throughout his life and he was an avid golfer well into his 90s. He could often be seen driving his golf cart around Samoa.

His wife, Lili Tunu, died in 1986. Tanumafili had eleven children during his life: Suʻa Vainuupo, Afioga Malietoa Papaliʻitele Faamausili Molī (the current holder of the Malietoa title), Papaliʻitele Titiuatoa, Papaliʻitele Ioane, Papaliʻitele Douglas (sons) and Seiuli Tutai, Lola Tosi and Momoe (daughters). One child died in infancy, while two of his sons, Papaliʻitele Molioo Laupepa and Papaliitele Eti, died in 1985 and 2005 respectively. At the time of his death, he had four surviving children – two sons and two daughters.

Malietoa Tanumafili II was a follower of the Baháʼí Faith. He was the first President and the first serving head of state to be a member of that religion. The Baháʼí House of Worship in Tiapapata, eight kilometres from the country’s capital of Apia, was dedicated by him in 1984.

Public life

Tanumafili officially inherited the royal title of Malietoa in 1940, following the 1939 death of his father, Malietoa Tanumafili I, though some media reports claim that he received the title of Malietoa in 1939. Soon after becoming Malietoa, he was appointed to serve as a special adviser, also called Fautua, to the New Zealand administration and governor of Samoa, known as the New Zealand Trusteeship of Samoa, until independence in 1962.

Chiefdom of State

Upon Samoa’s independence in 1962, Malietoa Tanumafili II became O le Ao o le Malo, or head of state for a lifetime term, jointly with Tupua Tamasese Mea’ole. Tanumafili and Mea’ole would serve jointly as head of state for just 16 months.^[1] When Mea’ole died in 1963, Tanumafili became the sole head of state, a post he held for life until his death in 2007. He is often credited for providing much of the stability that Samoa has enjoyed post independence.

Malietoa travelled extensively during his term as O le Ao o le Malo. He travelled to the People’s Republic of China for an official state visit in 1976. Additionally, during his term he also visited Australia, Fiji, Hawaii, Japan, New Zealand, South Korea, Tonga, the United Kingdom and the former West Germany. Malietoa Tanumafili was among the foreign dignitaries who attended the funeral of Japanese Emperor Showa in 1989.

Malietoa Tanumafili II was described as the last survivor of a generation of important Pacific leaders who guided their countries and peoples from colonialism to independence. His death was the latest in a string of recent, high-profile passings of members of this Pacific generation of leaders, which included Fijian Prime Minister and later President, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, the King of Tonga, Taufa’ahau Tupou IV, and New Zealand’s Maori Queen, Dame Te Atairangikaahu.

Death

Malietoa Tanumafili II died at 18:45 on Friday 11 May 2007, at the Tupua Tamasese Meaole National Hospital at Moto’otua in Apia, Samoa. He was being treated as a patient for pneumonia at the hospital for approximately a week. The cause of his death was from a heart attack.

His death was announced by Samoan Secretary of State Vaasatia Poloma Komiti on SBC TV1. “It is with deepest regret that we inform you of the passing of our Head of State Malietoa Tanumafili II.”

Malietoa Tanumafili II was the world’s third longest serving living head of state at the time of his death in May 2007 after Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who reigned from 1946 until his death in 2016 and Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 1952., as well as the longest serving incumbent President (succeeded by Gabon’s Omar Bongo).

Samoa (/səˈmoʊə/), officially the Independent State of Samoa (Samoan: Malo Saʻoloto Tutoʻatasi o Sāmoa; Samoan: Sāmoa, IPA: [ˈsaːmoa]) and, until 4 July 1997, known as Western Samoa, is a country consisting of two main islands, Savai’i and Upolu, and four smaller islands. The capital city is Apia. The Lapita people discovered and settled the Samoan Islands around 3,500 years ago. They developed a unique Samoan language and Samoan cultural identity.

Samoa is a unitary parliamentary democracy with eleven administrative divisions. The country is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. Western Samoa was admitted to the United Nations on 15 December 1976. The entire island group, which includes American Samoa, was called “Navigator Islands” by European explorers before the 20th century because of the Samoans’ seafaring skills.

After repeated efforts by the Samoan independence movement, the New Zealand Western Samoa Act 1961 of 24 November 1961 granted Samoa independence, effective on 1 January 1962, upon which the Trusteeship Agreement terminated. Samoa also signed a friendship treaty with New Zealand. Samoa, the first small-island country in the Pacific to become independent, joined the Commonwealth of Nations on 28 August 1970. While independence was achieved at the beginning of January, Samoa annually celebrates 1 June as its independence day.

Travel writer Paul Theroux noted marked differences between the societies in Western Samoa and American Samoa in 1992.

In 2002, New Zealand’s prime minister Helen Clark formally apologised for New Zealand’s role in the events of 1918 and 1929.

Early Samoa

New Zealand scientists have dated remains in Samoa to about 2900 years ago. These were found at a Lapita site at Mulifanua and the findings were published in 1974.

The origins of the Samoans are closely studied in modern research about Polynesia in various scientific disciplines such as genetics, linguistics and anthropology. Scientific research is ongoing, although a number of different theories exist; including one proposing that the Samoans originated from Austronesian predecessors during the terminal eastward Lapita expansion period from Southeast Asia and Melanesia between 2,500 and 1,500 BCE.

Intimate sociocultural and genetic ties were maintained between Samoa, Fiji, and Tonga, and the archaeological record supports oral tradition and native genealogies that indicate inter-island voyaging and intermarriage between pre-colonial Samoans, Fijians, and Tongans. Notable figures in Samoan history included the Tui Manu’a line and Queen Salamasina (15th century). Nafanua was a famous woman warrior who was deified in ancient Samoan religion.

Contact with Europeans began in the early 18th century. Jacob Roggeveen, a Dutchman, was the first known European to sight the Samoan islands in 1722. This visit was followed by French explorer Louis-Antoine de Bougainville, who named them the Navigator Islands in 1768. Contact was limited before the 1830s, which is when English missionaries and traders began arriving.