1961 Mali 5-franc

[villa66]

A 1961 5-franc from Mali struck in aluminum, with a diameter of 20mm and a weight of 1.00g, the low-value in a three-coin series that was a part of the flood of African independence that marked the late-1950s and early-1960s.

Mali won its independence in 1960, and these 1961-dated coins were issued in 1962. Pictured on the series was the lion on the 25-franc, a horse on the 10-franc, and on these 5-franc pieces, a front-facing hippopotamus.

Front-facing coin portraits are generally a tricky exercise, but who can say with confidence when a designer has gotten a hippo wrong?

Well, maybe it can be objected to on religious grounds. After all, the same year of this 1961 5-franc piece, Mali’s flag had its stick-figure representation of a human removed because of pressure from the country’s Islamic citizens—it had run afoul of the proscription, in certain contexts, against the use of human- (and some forms of animal-) imagery.

Mali—the country takes its name from the Mali Empire of ancient times, but I have read that “mali” means “hippopotamus” in the local Bamanankan language, so….

Mali—actual location of a famous place-name in idiomatic English: “Timbuktu.”

v.

[villa66]

I note the '61 coins were produced with a frozen date until at least 1972.

Since the new series of '75-77 repeated two of the three values of '61, they must have circulated, but I've only seen them uncirculated, or nearly so. Has anyone seen Mali's 1961 coins looking thoroughly used?

v.

[Chippi]

Hi villa,

I had a very worn piece of 10 Francs, but sold a long time ago, because I found a better piece!

Greetings Chippi

[Afrasi]

I saw lots of them in bad condition at Bamako. They were long out of use, but the Lebanese owner of a Cafe showed my a tin box full of them.

[villa66]

Chippi and Afrasi, vielen dank. Now I know! (And my apologies for taking so long to reply.)

v.