10 Dollars Klaus Störtebeker

Klaus Störtebeker was a 14th-century German privateer — hanged in Hamburg in 1401 alongside dozens of his crew — whose historical record is so tangled with legend that numismatists cataloging coins bearing his name are, strictly speaking, cataloging a myth as much as a man. The connection to Namibia is purely commercial: the Bank of Namibia issued a series of legal-tender collector coins featuring figures with no geographic or historical tie to the country, produced primarily for the European novelty market.

Hamburg folklore holds that Störtebeker walked headless past eleven of his men after his decapitation, each step sparing one crew member from execution.