500 Afghanis Siberian Crane

Issued under the short-lived Daoud Khan republic just months before the April 1978 Saur Revolution brought a Soviet-backed communist government to power, this coin was almost certainly struck abroad — Afghanistan had no domestic capability to produce silver commemoratives of this specification. The Siberian Crane series was part of the WWF wildlife conservation program that prompted numerous countries to issue collector coinage during the 1970s.

The Siberian Crane's selection was not arbitrary: the Afghan-wintering population of the western flock, which migrated through the country to the Caspian, was already critically endangered by 1978. That population is now functionally extinct.