10 Pula Klipspringer

Botswana's early commemorative silver program was tied directly to the country's need to establish international credibility as a newly independent nation — independence came only in 1966, and the Bank of Botswana itself was established just two years later in 1975, replacing the rand as the national currency with the pula. The 1978 issues were among the first significant silver commemoratives the bank produced, aimed partly at the collector export market as a source of hard currency.

The .500 fineness is notably low for a collector silver issue of this period, when most comparable commonwealth-adjacent programs were using .925 or .999 silver. It suggests cost constraints were a real factor in the program's design.