5000 Kwacha African Elephant

Zambia's elephant bullion series occupies an unusual corner of the silver coin market — the designs changed annually, which drove speculative collector demand well beyond anything the Zambian government could have anticipated when the series launched. By 2016, the secondary market for earlier dates had already outpaced issue price by multiples, pulling buyers into each new release on the chance it would do the same.

Zambia itself has no mint; these were struck under contract in Germany, almost certainly at B.H. Mayer's Kunstprägeanstalt in Munich.