1 Kwacha

Malawi decimalized in 1971, replacing the pound system inherited from colonial rule, but the kwacha's purchasing power eroded so severely over subsequent decades that by the late 2000s the country was managing one of the most distorted official exchange rates in sub-Saharan Africa. The government pegged the kwacha artificially until 2012, when the IMF conditioned aid disbursements on a free float — the kwacha lost roughly 50% of its value almost overnight in May of that year, the same year this series began.

The shift to stainless steel for this issue reflects that devaluation pressure directly: base metal coinage became the only economically viable option for low denominations.