World coins chat: Malawi

Malawi is located between Zambia and Mozambique and borders Malawi Lake. It was established as the Central African Protectorate by the British in 1891 and renamed to Nyasaland in 1907 until independence in 1964, when the current name was adopted. President Hastings Banda ruled the country from 1961 to  1994, and his portrait features on the Malawian coins of those days.

The Malawian Pound replaced the Rhodesia & Nyasaland Pound at par in 1964. In 1968 the Kwacha was introduced for 10 Shillings. Kwacha means 'dawn' in the Nyanja language, and the subdivision Tambala means 'rooster'. The rooster announces dawn, so here's the connection.

The Kwacha gradually lost value against hard currencies. In 1968 a Kwacha was $1.40, but by 2000 it took 16 Kwacha to buy a Dollar and as of 2015 this rate is 432/$. The purchasing power of Malawian coins is therefore quite limited.

Malawian coins are not the easiest to find. Especially the Malawian Pound coins are quite rare and undervalued by NGC or Krause. The most recent series is from 2012.

https://en.numista.com/catalogue/malawi-1.html

The Malawian penny is perhaps the world's most boring coin.


The rest of the pre-decimal issues are pretty nice, though:


I don't have much to say about the post-decimal issues.

I have a 1971 proof Kwacha along with the rest of the proof coins for that year, which was the first year of decimal coinage. I am glad I read your synopsis because I was wondering what kwacha meant. That is a interesting connection between the Malawi motifs.   

Actually that Penny is the most difficult to find Malawian coin! I once found the other 4 in a proof set for just 10 euro but my bids for a 1d fot blown away at an auction once and I've never seen any since.

The 1 Tambala coin features a rooster, hence a 'tambala'. And now I know the name of the man depicted on all those coins. Like many post-colonial presidents, he wished to be portraited on a coin like a real king.

The Malawian penny is not the most boring coin... the most boring coins are Belgian francs from the 1994 year.

Only got a couple coins from there, both from 1996:
20 Tambala - https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces4780.html
1 Kwacha - https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces4782.html

I've got 17, but not the 1d  

Again this coin: Rhodesia-Nyassaland threepence 1957