1000 Bipkwele Spanish Royalty Visit; Trial Strike; Copper

Equatorial Guinea gained independence from Spain in 1968, but relations between Macias Nguema's brutal dictatorship and Madrid remained severed for most of the 1970s. The 1979 coup that brought Teodoro Obiang Nguema to power reopened diplomatic ties, and a subsequent royal visit by King Juan Carlos I became the political occasion for this commemorative issue. Trial strikes in copper are pattern-level pieces produced to test dies before committing to a final composition — they were never released for circulation.

The X# prefix in the reference confirms its status outside regular coinage, catalogued by Krause in their unusual world coins volume.