Guinea's 1970 gold commemorative program was among the more ambitious issued by any newly independent African state, produced during Sékou Touré's increasingly authoritarian first decade in power. The Nefertiti issue belongs to a series minted largely for the international collector market — hard currency Guinea desperately needed, given its economic isolation after the 1958 rupture with France left the country without French financial support or CFA Franc membership.
Struck at .900 fineness by a European contract mint, these pieces saw no domestic circulation whatsoever.
Guinea's 1970 gold commemorative program was among the more ambitious issued by any newly independent African state, produced during Sékou Touré's increasingly authoritarian first decade in power. The Nefertiti issue belongs to a series minted largely for the international collector market — hard currency Guinea desperately needed, given its economic isolation after the 1958 rupture with France left the country without French financial support or CFA Franc membership.
Struck at .900 fineness by a European contract mint, these pieces saw no domestic circulation whatsoever.