1000 Francs CFA Nectophrynoides Asperginis

Nectophrynoides asperginis, the Kihansi spray toad, was declared extinct in the wild in 2009 — just two years before this coin was struck. Its entire wild population had depended on the mist generated by Tanzania's Kihansi Falls, a microhabitat obliterated when the Kihansi hydroelectric dam diverted roughly 90% of the river's flow in 2000. A captive breeding program at the Bronx and Toledo zoos preserved the species from total extinction.

The Republic of the Congo has no geographic or ecological connection to this Tanzanian amphibian. This is a bullion-adjacent wildlife issue produced for the collector market.