250 Meticais Independence

Mozambique's 1985 coinage came during one of the country's most desperate periods — a decade into independence from Portugal and deep into the RENAMO insurgency funded largely by apartheid South Africa and Rhodesian successor interests. The Frelimo government was simultaneously prosecuting a civil war, managing catastrophic famine, and operating a command economy that had driven skilled labor out of the country almost entirely.

The copper-nickel composition replaced an earlier silver version — KM#107, struck for the tenth anniversary of independence — making this the circulation-metal variant of a commemorative type.