The Botswana 100 pula keeps the memory of a journey that may have kept the country on the map. The front shows three chiefs, Khama III, Sebele I and Bathoen I, who travelled to Britain in 1895 to seek protection for their lands against the ambitions of Cecil Rhodes’s British South Africa Company.

The Bank of Botswana states the aim of that mission plainly: to secure the country’s identity. The back shows what the country stands on today: the open pit of the Orapa diamond mine and a sorter examining a rough diamond.

The note belongs to the family introduced in August 2009, which kept the earlier design; this example is dated 2010. The diamond theme continues in the security features: on the holographic stripe the number 100 and a diamond image switch as the note is tilted, and against the light a rampant zebra watermark appears.

For a Botswana collection this is one of the two highest denominations of the 2009 family, and in a set on «historical figures of Africa» it is a note that places three chiefs side by side, united by a single diplomatic mission. UNC condition means the note has never circulated: no folds, no wear, no soiling, even corners — just as it left the press.

Would you like to complete the whole series? See the other denominations in the VPcoins catalogue.