10 000 Francs

The Banque des États de l'Afrique Centrale — the BEAC — was restructured in 1972 following a renegotiation of the CFA franc zone agreements between France and the six member states, with the Congo among them. This 10 000 franc note belongs to the early years of that new institutional arrangement, during which the Congo was formally a Marxist-Leninist single-party state under the Parti Congolais du Travail. That political posture sat uneasily alongside continued use of a currency printed in Paris and governed by a Franco-African central bank.

Three signature combinations are documented across the series, reflecting turnover in the directorate between 1974 and 1981.