10 000 Kip Cichlasoma Fish

Laos issued a series of small-format gold coins in the early 2000s targeting the collector bullion market rather than domestic circulation — the kip had been in freefall through the late 1990s Asian financial crisis, losing roughly 80% of its value against the dollar between 1997 and 1999, making gold-denominated face values largely notional. The Cichlasoma designation here is taxonomically dated; the genus was largely dissolved in the 1980s and 1990s as ichthyologists redistributed its species across multiple new genera.