1 Cent

Zimbabwe's 1980 coinage marked the country's first independent issue following the end of Rhodesia and the Lancaster House Agreement of December 1979. The Reserve Bank moved quickly to establish a distinct national currency, and these bronze cents entered circulation alongside the newly named Zimbabwe dollar at parity with the outgoing Rhodesian dollar. The bronze composition was already becoming economically awkward by the mid-1980s as metal costs crept toward face value — a problem that would eventually push the series toward steel-core alternatives.