1 Metical

The metical was reintroduced in 2006 following a redenomination that replaced 1,000 old meticais with a single new metical — a direct consequence of the inflationary damage accumulated during and after Mozambique's civil war, which ended in 1992 but left the currency severely degraded. Banco de Moçambique's decision to rebase the unit simplified commerce and effectively erased a zeros problem that had made everyday pricing unwieldy for nearly two decades.

Nickel-plated steel replaced the costlier alloys used in earlier metical series, reflecting the practical constraints of a low-denomination coin expected to circulate heavily in a developing economy.