20 Lisente - Letsie III

Lesotho's coinage has always occupied an awkward economic position — the country is entirely surrounded by South Africa and uses the South African rand interchangeably with its own loti at a fixed 1:1 peg, meaning domestic coins compete daily with a foreign currency for pocket space. The 20 lisente has remained in production across two decades largely by institutional inertia rather than strong demand.

Letsie III was deposed briefly in 1990 in favor of his father Moshoeshoe II, then restored in 1995 following his father's controversial death — making him the issuing authority on coins spanning a period of genuine constitutional turbulence.