1000 Francs CFA Rhinoceros

The Republic of the Congo — not to be confused with the Democratic Republic of the Congo across the river — has issued a steady stream of wildlife-themed bullion and collector pieces since the early 2000s, largely through arrangements with European minting agencies targeting the collector market rather than domestic circulation. These pieces never see Brazzaville.

The black rhinoceros population in the Congo Basin had effectively collapsed by the 1990s, with poaching pressure and habitat loss driving regional extinction across much of central Africa. Whether that irony was intentional is unclear.