20 Dollars Year of the Ox, Type I

Liberia's late-1990s bullion and commemorative program was largely a commercial operation targeting foreign collectors rather than domestic circulation — the country was in the midst of a devastating civil war, and the Liberian dollar itself had fractured into competing regional currencies backed by rival factions. These pieces were produced under government license but essentially for export, with the revenue accruing to the issuing authority rather than any domestic monetary function.

The "Type I" designation distinguishes this from a subsequent variant; collectors should verify the specific reverse die characteristics against KM#498 before attributing.