20 Ariary

The 1978 silver 20 Ariary belongs to a limited proof or collector series issued under the Didier Ratsiraka government, which had nationalized much of the Malagasy economy and reoriented the country toward Soviet-aligned socialism following the 1975 coup. Collector issues of this period were largely produced for foreign exchange revenue rather than domestic circulation — hard currency the regime badly needed.

KM#14a distinguishes the silver striking from the base-metal circulation type, suggesting this was a deliberate parallel issue for numismatic markets.