1 Kwacha

The 1 Kwacha series of this period reflects Zambia's deepening economic difficulties through the late 1970s, when copper revenues — the backbone of the national budget — collapsed following a global price slump that the Kaunda government never managed to offset. The 1 Kwacha was a workhorse denomination in daily transactions, which means heavily worn survivors are common while genuinely uncirculated examples are harder to locate than the mintage figures might suggest.

Thomas De La Rue held the printing contract throughout this era, a relationship stretching back to Zambia's independence issues of 1964.