1 Zaïre Essai

The zaïre as a currency unit was introduced in 1967 as part of Mobutu Sese Seko's sweeping authenticité campaign — a forced cultural nationalism that renamed the country, the river, and the money itself, erasing colonial-era designations in a single administrative stroke. The new currency replaced the franc congolais at a rate of 1 zaïre to 1,000 francs.

Essai pieces like this were struck for submission and approval purposes, not circulation. The Banque Nationale du Congo — itself later renamed as Mobutu's renaming compulsion extended to institutions — commissioned these trial strikes through European minting contractors, a detail KM records but does not elaborate on.