50 Francs

Burundi's franc coinage has been shaped less by monetary policy than by chronic instability — the country emerged from a civil war that killed an estimated 300,000 people between 1993 and 2005, and the central bank has operated under persistent fiscal strain ever since. The nickel-plated steel composition of this issue reflects that pressure directly; earlier franc denominations used costlier alloys that became economically impractical to maintain.