This stunning $10 Proof Silver Crown was issued by the island nation of Samoa to commemorate Jean-François de Galoup, the Comte de La Pérouse (August 23, 1741-1788). Comte de La Pérouse, an admirer of English Naval explorer Captain James Cook, was a French explorer and naval officer. In 1786 he mapped the west coast of North America, voyaged to Easter Island and Hawaii, but vanished at sea with his two ships, the Astrolabe and the Boussole and their crews while sailing to the Solomon Islands. The wreckages of these two ships were finally located by the French in 1981.