5 Lisente - Moshoeshoe II

Lesotho's first decimal coinage series launched in 1979, when the country replaced the South African rand-pegged loti system with its own independently denominated currency following the Lesotho Monetary Authority's conversion into the Central Bank of Lesotho. The timing was politically deliberate — asserting financial separation from Pretoria during a period of acute tension between the two countries, rooted in Lesotho's refusal to recognize the Transkei and other nominally independent bantustans.

Moshoeshoe II had been deposed and restored once already by 1979, and would be forced into exile again in 1990 by Leabua Jonathan's successor regime. KM#18 spans the most turbulent decade of his reign.