500 Afghanis Marco Polo Sheep

Issued under the Taliban government, which had seized Kabul in 1996 and was recognized by almost no foreign state, this coin was almost certainly produced abroad — likely in a European mint — and never meaningfully circulated within Afghanistan itself. The Da Afghanistan Bank continued nominal operations during this period, but the regime's international isolation made foreign currency dealings effectively the only viable monetary activity.

Marco Polo sheep (*Ovis ammon polii*) inhabit the Wakhan Corridor in Afghanistan's far northeast, a narrow strip of territory that kept Russia and British India from sharing a border during the Great Game.