25 Ngwee

Zambia's early 1990s coinage reflects the country's painful IMF-backed structural adjustment program, which gutted purchasing power and rendered small denominations functionally worthless within years of minting. The 1992 series switched to nickel-plated steel across multiple denominations — a direct cost-cutting response to the kwacha's collapse, which had made the metal value of older cupro-nickel coins approach their face value.