25 Francs Barbary sheep, silver essai

Niger's post-independence coinage program produced a series of essais in the late 1960s, struck at the Paris Mint as trial or proof-of-concept pieces never intended for circulation. These essais were standard practice under the French monetary system that governed CFA franc zone territories — Paris would strike small quantities in precious metals for official approval before committing to base-metal production runs. KM#E9 belongs to that approval process, which means surviving examples come almost exclusively from the original governmental or collector distributions rather than any secondary market dispersal.