The Democratic Republic of the Congo issued a series of small brass coins in the early 2000s featuring local wildlife, coinciding with the country's currency reform following years of catastrophic hyperinflation under Mobutu and the subsequent civil wars. The franc had been reintroduced in 1998, replacing the new zaïre at a rate of 100,000 to one.
KM#81 is part of that stabilization coinage — modest, functional, struck for actual circulation rather than the collector-market wildlife issues the DRC simultaneously produced in abundance.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo issued a series of small brass coins in the early 2000s featuring local wildlife, coinciding with the country's currency reform following years of catastrophic hyperinflation under Mobutu and the subsequent civil wars. The franc had been reintroduced in 1998, replacing the new zaïre at a rate of 100,000 to one.
KM#81 is part of that stabilization coinage — modest, functional, struck for actual circulation rather than the collector-market wildlife issues the DRC simultaneously produced in abundance.