1000 Dobras Flora and Fauna - Seahorse and crab

São Tomé e Príncipe's 1990s silver program targeted the international collector market almost exclusively — the domestic economy had no meaningful demand for 1000-dobra commemoratives at any point. The Banco Central contracted these issues largely to generate foreign exchange, a strategy common among small island nations with limited export revenue and donor-dependent budgets.

KM#78 belongs to a thematically grouped Flora and Fauna series from this period, several of which were struck by European mints on behalf of the issuing authority rather than produced domestically.