The Republic of Chad uses the Central African CFA Franc as its currency; it is the common currency of six independent states in central Africa: Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. The CFA Franc has both common and national issues. All common circulating coins are issued under the authority of CEMAC ("Communauté Économique et Monétaire de l'Afrique Centrale" - Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa) and have no issuing country. Separately, each member country can strike coins bearing its national symbols; these coins are legal tender in the other members of the bloc too.
Chad has authorised some foreign mints to strike coins under its issuing authority for collector's purposes, or as bullion. These are usually dedicated to historical or general popular culture themes not related to the country itself. Many of them are in standard bullion sizes, such as the internationally popular one troy ounce of gold format, such as this coin.
Space probe Pioneer 10 - the first man-made object that left our solar system - began its journey on 3 March 1972. It carries a gold-anodised aluminium plaque in case the spacecraft is ever found by intelligent life-forms from another planetary system, with a message to them. The Pioneer plaque features figures of a human male and female along with symbols designed to provide information about the origin of the spacecraft.
This bullion coin celebrates the 50th anniversary of this "Message from Earth". |