10 Francs Chimpanzee

The Democratic Republic of the Congo was barely three years old as a reconstituted state when this coin was issued — Mobutu's Zaire had collapsed in 1997 after Laurent-Désiré Kabila's forces swept from the east. The new government, strapped for hard currency and lacking a stable domestic collector base, turned aggressively to the novelty bullion and commemorative export market. These coins were never intended for Congolese pockets.

KM#35 is part of a wildlife series produced almost entirely for the European and North American collector trade through third-party minting arrangements.