500 Afghanis Piedfort, Marco Polo Sheep

Piedforts — coins struck at double the normal planchet thickness — have been used by mints since medieval France as presentation pieces and to demonstrate die quality, never intended for circulation. Afghanistan's use of the format in the late 1990s was purely commercial, produced for the international collector market during a period when the Taliban controlled Kabul and the Da Afghanistan Bank existed largely in name only.

The Marco Polo sheep, native to the high-altitude Pamir range where Afghanistan, Tajikistan, China, and Pakistan converge, was a recurring subject for Afghan wildlife commemoratives during this decade. The KM#144a designation confirms this as the piedfort variant of a standard issue.