Mauritania's post-independence coinage required a clean break from the CFA franc system, which the country abandoned in 1973 upon establishing the ouguiya — one of only two world currencies not decimally subdivided, with five khoums to one ouguiya rather than one hundred subunits. The Banque Centrale de Mauritanie was itself only founded that same year, making this issue part of the original sovereign monetary establishment rather than a later reform coinage.
The thirty-year production run with no major compositional change is notable for a West African issue of this period, most of which saw repeated reformulations driven by metal costs.
Mauritania's post-independence coinage required a clean break from the CFA franc system, which the country abandoned in 1973 upon establishing the ouguiya — one of only two world currencies not decimally subdivided, with five khoums to one ouguiya rather than one hundred subunits. The Banque Centrale de Mauritanie was itself only founded that same year, making this issue part of the original sovereign monetary establishment rather than a later reform coinage.
The thirty-year production run with no major compositional change is notable for a West African issue of this period, most of which saw repeated reformulations driven by metal costs.