ZK20 — Twenty Kwacha
The artwork
Front: Kenneth Kaunda in a patterned tunic fills the right third, the face turned slightly out — Zambia's founding president, whose likeness carried every note until the multiparty era. An African fish eagle stoops on a fish at left, over a plain oval reserved for the watermark; a butterfly and bands of geometric weave-pattern sit behind the value. Below, the arms of Zambia with the motto 'One Zambia, One Nation'.
Back: A quiet green panorama. At left the Freedom Statue in Lusaka — the figure of a man snapping the chains above his head, cast for independence. Behind it a colonnaded government building with shuttered windows and clipped shrubs, a tall palm to the right. An antelope head occupies the lower-left cartouche, a carved wooden mask the right margin, with K20 in each corner.
In circulation
Part of the Kaunda-portrait series issued from the late 1980s. The design did not outlast his presidency: after the 1991 election the Bank of Zambia dropped the portrait, and from 1992 the twenty kwacha appeared with the fish eagle alone as the face of the note.
Details
- IssuerBank of Zambia — 'I promise to pay the bearer on demand Twenty Kwacha'
- CurrencyKwacha (ZK)
- DenominationTwenty Kwacha
- Collectedon the Zambia journeys, 1992–1993
- SignatureSingle signature, titled Governor
- WatermarkHead of an African fish eagle, in the oval at left
- SecurityMatching serial numbers, prefix in fraction style (A/G), printed upper left and lower right