1500 Rupees Flycatcher

Issued to mark Seychelles' second anniversary of independence, this 1,500-rupee piece belongs to a short wildlife series timed to the 1978 FAO conference and produced in limited numbers for the collector market. The Seychelles paradise flycatcher — endemic to La Digue island and already critically endangered by the late 1970s — was chosen deliberately as a conservation signal at a moment when the newly independent government was positioning itself internationally on environmental issues.

Struck by the Royal Mint, the series saw minimal secondary-market circulation almost immediately upon release.