10 Thebe

Botswana's thebe coinage was introduced in 1976 when the country replaced the South African rand with its own currency — a move made possible by the dramatic reversal in the country's fortunes following the Orapa diamond discovery in 1967. The nickel clad steel composition adopted for this denomination by the late 1990s reflects a cost-driven reformulation common across southern African currencies during that period, as rising nickel prices made earlier alloys increasingly impractical to mint.