25 Thebe

Botswana's thebe coinage was introduced in 1976 when the country abandoned the South African rand — a currency it had used since independence in 1966 — in favour of the new pula system. The switch was a deliberate assertion of economic separation from Pretoria at a time when southern African politics made such gestures consequential. The nickel clad steel composition adopted for this later series replaced an earlier nickel-brass version, reflecting the global shift toward cheaper coinage materials as metal costs rose through the 1990s.