250 Pesetas Guineanas Dürer's Praying Hands

Equatorial Guinea gained independence from Spain in October 1968, and by 1970 the new government under Francisco Macías Nguema had already begun issuing an ambitious series of gold commemoratives clearly aimed at the collector market rather than circulation. The Dürer series was part of that program — a grab for foreign hard currency dressed as cultural patronage.

Macías would go on to declare himself "God" and preside over one of Africa's most brutal dictatorships before his nephew Obiang overthrew and executed him in 1979.