5 Francs Liechtenstein - Princess Marie

This piece belongs to a wave of "fantasy" collector coins issued by the Central Bank of Congo in the late 1990s, a program that had almost nothing to do with Congolese monetary policy and everything to do with licensing foreign subjects for the international novelty market. Liechtenstein issued no such coin itself. The Congo's legal-tender collector series from this period regularly featured foreign royals, world landmarks, and wildlife subjects — essentially a revenue mechanism dressed as numismatic issue.

Princess Marie of Liechtenstein — born Marie Kinsky von Wchinitz und Tettau — married Crown Prince Alois in 1993.