3000 Riels Asian Elephant

Cambodia's ongoing wildlife series has drawn collector attention largely because the National Bank has kept mintages tight — typically under 2,000 pieces per release — in contrast to the bloated runs that undermine similar programs elsewhere. The Asian elephant holds particular weight in Khmer culture, historically central to royal ceremony and warfare; war elephants were a documented feature of the Khmer Empire's armies as depicted at Angkor Wat, and the animal appeared on pre-revolutionary Cambodian coinage before the Khmer Rouge dismantled the country's monetary system entirely in 1975.

The KM#168.1 variant designation suggests a die or finish distinction from the base type — likely a privy mark or surface treatment difference, though Cambodia's catalog documentation on sub-varieties remains inconsistently maintained.