200 Pesetas Proclamation of Republic

The Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic has occupied a peculiar position in numismatics since its founding in 1976 — a state recognized by over 80 nations but controlling almost none of the territory it claims, with Spain having ceded Western Sahara to Morocco and Mauritania rather than to the Sahrawi people. Coins issued under the SADR are struck under contract by foreign mints and have never circulated in any conventional sense, functioning instead as a revenue stream through the collector market.

This 1996 copper piece commemorating the proclamation of the republic was issued two decades after that founding declaration, made from a refugee camp in Tindouf, Algeria — where the SADR government-in-exile still operates today.