20 Francs Titanoboa, colourized

The Titanoboa — Titanoboa cerrejonensis — was excavated from the Cerrejón coal mine in northern Colombia beginning in 2009, its fossilized vertebrae initially mistaken for oversized turtle bones. Estimates place the living animal at roughly 13 meters and over a tonne, making it the largest known snake in the evolutionary record. It has no connection whatsoever to the Congo Basin.

The Democratic Republic of Congo has issued a substantial run of wildlife-themed bullion and collector coinage under foreign licensing arrangements, many featuring fauna entirely unrelated to central Africa. KM#389.1 is part of that commercially driven program.