2000 Bipkwele 1979 Spanish Royalty Visit; Pattern

Equatorial Guinea's monetary history in this period is a tangle of political upheaval and foreign dependency. Francisco Macías Nguema — whose brutal dictatorship had essentially collapsed the country's economy by the late 1970s — was overthrown in August 1979 by his nephew Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. The Spanish royal visit commemorated here, coming so soon after that coup, was part of Spain's careful diplomatic re-engagement with its former colony under the new regime.

As a pattern, this piece never entered circulation. At 10 grams in aluminium for a 39mm flan, the weight is unusually heavy for the metal — suggesting either a thick planchet or an experimental specification that was abandoned before any production run was authorized.