5 Dollars The Hanseatic League

The Hanseatic League operated as a commercial and defensive alliance of merchant guilds across Northern Europe from roughly the 13th through the 17th centuries, at its peak connecting over 200 cities from London to Novgorod. Lübeck functioned as its unofficial capital, and the League maintained its own diplomatic envoys, negotiated treaties independently of sovereign rulers, and could — and did — wage war. It was dissolved formally in 1862, though only three cities bothered attending the final meeting.

Samoa's connection to the subject is purely numismatic; the island nation has issued extensively under licensing arrangements with European distributors targeting collector markets.