10 Tambala

Malawi's decimal coinage system launched in 1971 when the country decimalized the kwacha, replacing the pre-decimal pound system inherited from the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. The 10 tambala occupied a practical mid-denomination role through a period of significant economic stress — by the mid-1980s, Malawi was navigating IMF structural adjustment programs that squeezed public finances and eventually forced currency reforms that would retire much of this series by 1989.