1000 Kwacha 20€ Note - reverse

Zambia's late-1990s novelty coinage leaned hard into the collector market, producing oversized pieces shaped like banknotes — a gimmick that found a surprisingly receptive audience in European coin fairs of the period. This piece mimics the obverse face of the 1000 Kwacha note then in circulation, a denomination worth roughly a few US cents by the time of issue, the kwacha having been gutted by years of copper-price collapse and structural adjustment conditionality from the IMF.

The silver-plated nickel brass construction degrades predictably at the high points of the relief lettering where plating thins during striking.