Equatorial Guinea's early 1980s wildlife series was driven almost entirely by export — these coins were minted for the international collector market, not domestic circulation, during a period when the country's finances were in severe disarray following the brutal Macías Nguema dictatorship, which ended with his execution in 1979. The incoming Obiang government inherited an economy that had been deliberately dismantled; hard currency from foreign coin sales was one of the few reliable revenue streams available.
Burchell's zebra does not inhabit Equatorial Guinea, which underscores the purely commercial logic of the series.
Equatorial Guinea's early 1980s wildlife series was driven almost entirely by export — these coins were minted for the international collector market, not domestic circulation, during a period when the country's finances were in severe disarray following the brutal Macías Nguema dictatorship, which ended with his execution in 1979. The incoming Obiang government inherited an economy that had been deliberately dismantled; hard currency from foreign coin sales was one of the few reliable revenue streams available.
Burchell's zebra does not inhabit Equatorial Guinea, which underscores the purely commercial logic of the series.