20 Francs Gigantopithecus

The Democratic Republic of the Congo has issued collector silver under its own authority since the post-Mobutu reorganization of 1997, typically contracting production to European mints. This piece belongs to a series drawing on prehistoric megafauna — Gigantopithecus blacki, the largest known ape to have existed, stood roughly three meters tall and disappeared from the fossil record approximately 300,000 years ago, likely due to dietary inflexibility during Pleistocene forest contraction. Its remains are known almost entirely from jaw fragments and isolated teeth recovered in southern China and Southeast Asia.