15 000 Kip Black crested gibbon

Laos issued this coin as part of a broader wave of wildlife-themed silver pieces produced primarily for the collector export market during the early 2000s — coins that rarely if ever circulated domestically. The northern white-cheeked gibbon (Nomascus leucogenys), native to the forests of northern Laos and Vietnam, was already under severe pressure from habitat loss and the bushmeat trade by the time this coin was struck.

The IUCN listed the species as Critically Endangered within a decade of this issue's minting date.