10 Maloti - Moshoeshoe II Monument of King Moshoeshoe I

Issued the same year Lesotho ratified a new constitution under Moshoeshoe II, this commemorative honors the dynastic founder whose 1820s consolidation of Sotho-speaking peoples — a political feat achieved largely through diplomacy rather than conquest — gave the kingdom its unlikely survival against both Zulu expansion and Boer encroachment. The monument itself stands at Thaba Bosiu, the mountain stronghold Moshoeshoe I defended repeatedly through the mid-nineteenth century, including against two Cape Colony invasions in 1858 and 1868.

KM#23a distinguishes the sterling silver issue from KM#23, struck in copper-nickel for circulation.