Banknotes of Western Samoa

      Western Samoa has an intrigueing numismatic history. In 1889 Samoa became a Tripartite German-UK-U.S. protectorate. An international treaty designed to resolve disputes between the three nations gave Germany sole control over the Western Islands then to be named German Samoa in 1899.
      America got sole control over the Eastern Islands known as American Samoa and Great Britain gained sole control over Tonga. On 29 August 1914 at the outbreak of WW1 the New Zealand Advance Expeditionary Force landed at Apia. The landing was unopposed by the Germans.
      Currency was required and Bank of New Zealand notes were overprinted by the New Zealand Government to be used in the occupied territory. The New Zealand Government did not issue banknotes in New Zealand till 1934. This task had been left to the registered private trading banks.
      These overprinted notes were issued until 1922 when new notes were printed. These notes with small changes were in use till 1962 when for a short time these notes were overprinted for use by the Bank of Samoa which took over the responsibility of issueing banknotes. In 1963 a new modern design was used for the banknotes.
      With the changeover from pounds to decimal currency (Tala = dollar) in 1967 the same design was retained as the 1963 issue. Consequent design changes were made to the series in 1980 and 1985. In 1990 the 2 Tala polymer banknote was introduced making WesternSamoa the second country in the world to change to Polymer banknotes. In 2003 the whole series became polymer notes. . Kurt Schuler has a fantastic site on the legal and economic aspects of the money issued in Samoa.