1000 Francs Hippopotamus

Niger issued this coin under the broader Central African wildlife series that various Francophone states licensed to European minting houses — in this case production was handled outside the issuing country entirely, as Niger has no domestic mint. The arrangement is purely commercial: the sovereign lending its name and legal authority to a bullion-adjacent collectible marketed primarily to European and Asian buyers.

The hippopotamus is an odd choice for Niger specifically, given that wild hippo populations there had already collapsed to functionally extinct levels in the Niger River basin well before 2012.