20 Ariary Lemur

Issued as part of Madagascar's wildlife conservation series during the late 1980s, this piece was struck for the international collector market rather than domestic circulation. The ring-tailed lemur, endemic to Madagascar, had by this point become a focal species in international conservation discourse, and several African and island nations were producing similar themed silver issues to capitalize on collector demand while simultaneously drawing attention to habitat loss.

KM#15 is a proof-intended issue with limited domestic monetary relevance — the ariary itself had only been formally reestablished as the primary unit of account in 2003, meaning the 1988 denomination structure still operated under the franc malgache system in practice.