10 Francs Panama Canal

The Democratic Republic of Congo has issued numerous commemorative silver pieces under licensing arrangements with foreign distributors — this Panama Canal issue being among them. These coins were never intended for Congolese circulation; the series was produced explicitly for the international collector market, a revenue strategy adopted by several cash-strapped central banks in the late 1990s.

The Canal itself was in the final stretch of American administration when this was struck — the full handover to Panama was completed on December 31, 1999, just months before this coin's issue date.