Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
4000 Kwacha - Elizabeth II Anglo-Japanese Alliance
| Issuer | Bank of Zambia |
|---|---|
| Year | 2002 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | KM#281 |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Latin |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Central design featuring a large rayed sun motif encircled by a beaded ring, the whole enclosed within a wreath of paulownia foliage tied at the base with a decorative ribbon bow. A chrysanthemum mon appears at the top of the field flanked by two additional floral emblems, all rendered in high relief against a mirror-polished proof field. The composition is closely adapted from historical Japanese coinage of the Meiji era, evoking the iconography of the period of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
The Anglo-Japanese Alliance, first signed in 1902, was a genuinely consequential pact — the first formal military alliance between a European power and an Asian nation. It obligated Britain to remain neutral if Japan went to war with a single power, and to intervene if Japan faced two or more. Japan exploited that security in 1904 when it attacked Russia, knowing Britain would keep France out of the conflict. The alliance was quietly allowed to lapse in 1921 under pressure from the United States and Canada, who found its implications increasingly uncomfortable.
Zambia's role here is purely commercial — the Bank of Zambia issued numerous commemorative pieces in the early 2000s for the collector market, with no domestic connection to the subject matter.