1000 Francs CFA Pallavin meteorite

The Pallavin meteorite is a pallasite — a class so visually distinctive and structurally rare that fewer than 100 confirmed pallasites exist in recorded collections worldwide. Pallasites form at the core-mantle boundary of differentiated asteroids, making each specimen a fragment of a planetary body that never finished becoming a planet. Gabon's use of actual meteorite inlay rather than printed simulation places verifiable extraterrestrial material directly into the flan — the rhodium plating isolates the inlay chemically, preventing oxidation contact between the gold substrate and the olivine-iron matrix.