Zambia P-62 10 Kwacha 2024 UNC—Kariba Dam—Pangolin—Fish Eagle

Banknote Characteristics

• Varieties: Only one variety
• Color: Green, red, yellow
• Front: Bank of Zambia logo; flower as registration device; Kariba Dam on the Zambezi River; fish eagle in flight; map of Zambia in bronze colour-shifting OVI ink; Zambian coat of arms. Windowed security thread with demetalized Bank of Zambia logo and 10. Green and red print.
• Back: Zambezi Teak tree; two pangolins; Kabwelume Falls; flower as registration device. Green and red print; black serial numbers.
• Watermark: Fish eagle head and electrotype “10” and fish eagle
• Composition: Hybrid substrate (Durasafe®, a trademark of Louisenthal GmbH, a Giesecke+Devrient company)
• Size: 118 × 69 mm
• Issuing entity: Bank of Zambia
• Printer: Giesecke+Devrient, Leipzig
• Demonetized: No — legal tender (issued 31 March 2025)
• Signatures: Denny Kalyalya (Governor)
• Currency: Zambian kwacha (2013–date) — introduced on 1 January 2013 to replace the old kwacha at a rate of 1,000:1, eliminating three zeros from all prices and accounts. The new kwacha was part of a broader effort to restore confidence in the currency after years of inflation.

About Zambia

• Capital: Lusaka — city population ~3.3 million; metro area ~4 million
• Population: ~21 million — similar to Florida or Romania
• Area: 752,618 km² (290,587 mi²) — similar to Texas or Turkey
• GDP per capita (PPP): ~$3,500 USD (IMF 2026) — ranked approx. 160th globally
• Main exports: Copper, cobalt, gold, tobacco
• Borders: Congo (DRC) (north), Tanzania (northeast), Malawi (east), Mozambique (southeast), Zimbabwe (south), Botswana (south), Namibia (southwest), Angola (west)
• Languages:
  • English — official; language of government and education
  • Bemba — most widely spoken (~33%; Ethnologue 2023)
  • Nyanja — ~14%
  • Tonga — ~11%
  • 70+ other indigenous languages spoken across the country
• Sovereignty:
  • Pre-colonial kingdoms (Lozi, Bemba, and others)
  • British South Africa Company rule (1891–1924)
  • Northern Rhodesia (British protectorate, 1924–1964)
  • Republic of Zambia (1964–date)

Zambia Unfiltered

• Zambia is one of the world’s most copper-dependent economies. When copper prices fall, the kwacha follows.
• Kariba Dam — depicted on the obverse — is one of the largest man-made lakes by volume in the world. It displaced 57,000 Tonga people when it was built in the 1950s.
• Kabwelume Falls, on the reverse, is one of Zambia’s most spectacular waterfalls — and one of its least visited.
• Zambia was one of Africa’s first countries to default on its sovereign debt in the COVID era — in 2020. It restructured in 2023.
• The pangolin on this note is the most trafficked mammal on earth. Zambia putting two on its currency is a quiet act of conservation advocacy printed into every note in circulation.

Not an Armadillo but a Mammal Covered in "Fingernail"

The pangolin is not a reptile, not a rodent — it is a mammal, and the only one on earth fully covered in scales. Those scales are made of keratin, the same material as human fingernails. Nocturnal and solitary, it eats ants and termites with a tongue longer than its own body. When threatened, it curls into a tight ball — a defense that worked for millions of years, and now makes it trivially easy to pick up and carry away.

All eight species are threatened or endangered. They are hunted for their scales — used in traditional medicine across Asia — and for their meat. The pangolin is the most trafficked mammal on earth. Zambia putting two on its currency is not incidental. It is a quiet, durable act of advocacy — printed into every note in circulation.

A Dam, a Bird, and the Sound of Africa

The African fish eagle is Zambia’s national bird. Its call — a sharp, yelping cry thrown across open water — is so distinctive it has been called the sound of Africa. It appears on the obverse in flight, and again in the watermark.

Kariba Dam, also on the obverse, was one of the great engineering projects of the post-war era. Built between 1956 and 1959 on the Zambezi, it created one of the largest reservoirs in the world by volume. The Tonga people who lived in the valley were relocated — 57,000 of them — with little compensation and no return.

The 2024 series is Zambia’s most visually ambitious currency in decades. The security features alone — color-shifting OVI ink, windowed holographic thread, hidden latent image — make this a note worth examining closely.

Own This New Issue of Zambia’s 2024 Series

This is the P-62 — Zambia’s 10 Kwacha 2024 issue on Durasafe® hybrid substrate, in Uncirculated condition. Issued 31 March 2025. Crisp, unhandled, and from the first print run of a brand-new series.

Two pangolins. One fish eagle. A dam with a complicated history.