The Banque d'Algérie issued this small denomination through a period of extraordinary internal violence — the 1992 military cancellation of elections that Islamist parties were poised to win triggered a civil conflict that killed an estimated 100,000 to 200,000 people over the following decade. Coin circulation during the worst years of the 1990s was severely disrupted in rural and interior regions, meaning many pieces from this run saw minimal actual use despite long nominal production.
The Banque d'Algérie issued this small denomination through a period of extraordinary internal violence — the 1992 military cancellation of elections that Islamist parties were poised to win triggered a civil conflict that killed an estimated 100,000 to 200,000 people over the following decade. Coin circulation during the worst years of the 1990s was severely disrupted in rural and interior regions, meaning many pieces from this run saw minimal actual use despite long nominal production.