2000 Francs Kapala

The kapala is a ritual skull cup used in Vajrayana Buddhist and Hindu Tantric ceremonies, historically fashioned from the top of a human cranium. Cameroon's choice to issue this design has nothing to do with any domestic cultural tradition — the country has issued dozens of similarly exotic themed coins since the mid-2000s purely as collector targets, part of a wider Central African franc zone practice of licensing foreign mints to produce numismatic curiosities bearing African sovereign authority for international sale. Most never circulate and are never intended to.

The turquoise inlay is characteristic of production by the Czech mint Česká mincovna, which has supplied similar pieces across multiple African issuing authorities.