1000 Ekuele Masie Nguema Biyogo

Masie Nguema Biyogo — born Francisco Macías Nguema — ruled Equatorial Guinea from independence in 1968 until his overthrow and execution in 1979. His regime is estimated to have killed or driven into exile roughly a third of the country's population. The island of Bioko, then renamed after him, lent its name to this issue. Struck just a year before a nephew's coup ended his rule, these coins were produced almost entirely for the international collector market; the domestic economy had been so thoroughly destroyed that functioning currency was largely beside the point.