Issued as part of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization coin program, which recruited member governments throughout the 1970s and 1980s to mint circulating pieces bearing agricultural themes as a form of public awareness currency. Myanmar's participation came under the military-aligned government of Ne Win, whose isolationist "Burmese Way to Socialism" had by 1986 driven the country toward economic collapse — a crisis that would culminate in the catastrophic demonetization of higher-denomination kyat notes just one year later, wiping out personal savings overnight and triggering the 1988 uprising.
Issued as part of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization coin program, which recruited member governments throughout the 1970s and 1980s to mint circulating pieces bearing agricultural themes as a form of public awareness currency. Myanmar's participation came under the military-aligned government of Ne Win, whose isolationist "Burmese Way to Socialism" had by 1986 driven the country toward economic collapse — a crisis that would culminate in the catastrophic demonetization of higher-denomination kyat notes just one year later, wiping out personal savings overnight and triggering the 1988 uprising.