1 Cent - Mswati III 1st portrait

Mswati III ascended to the Swazi throne in April 1986 at age eighteen, making him one of the youngest reigning monarchs in the world at the time. This issue was struck the same year of his coronation, establishing the first official portrait coinage of his reign — a portrait that would later be replaced as the king aged. The Central Bank introduced the "a" variant in bronze as a cost-reduction measure from the earlier coinage, a quiet administrative decision that most collectors overlook entirely.