500 Nouveaux Zaïres Gorilla

By 1996, Mobutu Sese Seko's government was in terminal collapse — the Rwandan genocide had destabilized the entire eastern border, Laurent-Désiré Kabila's forces were advancing, and the economy had long since disintegrated under kleptocracy and hyperinflation. The nouveaux zaïre itself was introduced in 1993 specifically to lop zeros off a currency that had become functionally worthless, and by the time this coin was struck it had already lost most of its nominal value.

Issues like this one were produced for the international collector market rather than any domestic monetary purpose. The .500 fineness is notably low for a commemorative silver piece.