1000 Shillings Elephant Standing

Somalia's coin-issuing activity in the early 2000s operated almost entirely outside any functioning central bank — the state had collapsed in 1991, and these pieces were authorized and distributed through external licensing arrangements, primarily by a German company trading under the name coin invest trust (CIT). The Somali government-in-waiting lent its name to a series of bullion and collector issues it had no domestic capacity to produce or circulate.

KM#183 is part of a long-running elephant bullion series that competed directly with the South African Krugerrand for collector attention in the European market.