20 Centimes FAO

Issued as part of the FAO coin program, a United Nations initiative that ran from the late 1960s onward and persuaded central banks worldwide to mint circulating coins carrying agricultural themes in exchange for modest FAO funding and international recognition. Algeria participated sporadically in the program across several decades. By 1987, the country was deep into the post-boom contraction that followed the collapse of global oil prices in 1986 — a crash that cut Algerian state revenues by roughly half and triggered severe austerity across public institutions.