2 1/2 Zaïres Conservation

Issued as part of a global wave of conservation-themed coinage promoted by the WWF and IUCN in the mid-1970s, this piece was never intended for circulation — it was a hard currency earner for a government badly in need of foreign exchange. Mobutu Sese Seko's Zaïre was simultaneously projecting international legitimacy through wildlife imagery while presiding over the systematic looting of the country's natural resources.

The Zaïre itself as a currency unit had only been introduced in 1967, replacing the franc at a rate of one Zaïre to one thousand francs.