10 Shillings Rabbit, Empty leaves

Somaliland declared independence from Somalia in 1991 but remains unrecognized by any UN member state, making its currency a legal curiosity — accepted domestically but invisible in international exchange. The Bank of Somaliland has used its coinage program partly as a revenue-generating exercise, producing colorful and thematically unusual pieces aimed squarely at the collector market rather than circulation. This issue belongs to a series featuring animals of the Chinese lunar calendar — a peculiar choice for a predominantly Muslim Horn of Africa territory with no cultural connection to that tradition.