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100 Maloti - Moshoeshoe II 10th Anniversary of Independence
| Issuer | Lesotho |
|---|---|
| Year | 1976 |
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| Currency | Non-circulating Loti (1966-1980) |
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| Obverse description | Uniformed effigy of King Moshoeshoe II facing slightly right, depicted wearing a peaked military cap with badge, spectacles, a beard, and an elaborately detailed military dress uniform with epaulettes, occupying the central field. The dates 1966 and 1976 flank the portrait at mid-field. The surrounding legend reads KINGDOM OF LESOTHO along the upper arc and 10TH ANNIVERSARY OF INDEPENDENCE along the lower arc, all separated from the field by a rope-and-bead inner border with a stylised laurel outer border. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Latin |
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| Additional information |
Lesotho's 1976 commemorative program marked a decade since the mountain kingdom's independence from Britain in October 1966 — an independence negotiated while the surrounding South African apartheid state had every strategic interest in controlling or destabilizing the enclave entirely. Moshoeshoe II's position throughout this period was genuinely precarious; the king had already been briefly exiled in 1990, though his political struggles with Prime Minister Leabua Jonathan were well underway by the mid-1970s, with Jonathan having suspended the constitution following his 1970 election loss.
The .900 gold specification places this squarely in the Krügerrand-adjacent collector market of the era, when newly independent African states regularly issued low-mintage gold pieces through European minting houses to generate foreign currency.