The Executive, meeting in another session of the Council of Ministers, approved the decree authorising the issue of a ‘commemorative coin’ alluding to the 45th anniversary of the creation of the metical, which will be celebrated on 16 June 2025.
At the meeting on Tuesday, 10 December, the government explained that the commemorative coin aims to promote the history of the metical in the country and in the world, remembering it as the official monetary unit of the Republic of Mozambique, instituted on 16 June 1980, replacing the then colonial currency, the Portuguese escudo in Mozambican version.
In May, the Bank of Mozambique announced the launch of a new series of notes and coins that will progressively replace the versions in circulation since 2006. The new series came into force on 16 June 2024, marking Metical Day.
‘Central banks tend to revise their banknotes and coins in circulation every five years, so that they adapt to new trends in design, security and other contextual elements,’ explained the governor of the central bank at a press conference, justifying the decision: ’The institution decided to revise the metical banknotes and coins.’
Rogério Zandamela emphasised that ‘the theme of the 2024 series of metical notes and coins keeps in mind the tradition of praising the values of our cultural, historical and wildlife heritage.’
The governor looked back at previous changes, recalling the introduction of the third family of the metical in 2006, called the ‘Banco de Moçambique family’. This series succeeded the ‘People’s Republic of Mozambique’ and ‘Republic of Mozambique’ families. In 2011, the Bank introduced new notes with improved substrates and security features, and in 2017, even with robust security features, some characteristics were revised, resulting in the 2017 series.
At the time, Zandamela detailed that the new series will include denominations of 1000, 500 and 200 meticals in paper, and 100, 50 and 20 meticals in polymer.
