1000 Dobras Flora and Fauna - Porcelain Rose

São Tomé e Príncipe issued a series of Flora and Fauna coins through the mid-1990s largely as a foreign-currency earner — the islands' collector coin program was aimed squarely at overseas buyers, not domestic circulation. The dobra had suffered serious devaluation following the country's transition from single-party socialist rule after 1990, and hard currency from numismatic exports provided a modest but real supplement to the central bank's reserves.

KM#77 is part of that broader series. The porcelain rose — Rosa chinensis — is not native to the archipelago, which tells you something about how these thematic programs were assembled.