Catalog
10 Francs 'Moise Tshombé'
| Issuer | Banque Nationale du Katanga |
|---|---|
| Year | 1960 |
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| Size | 137 × 75 mm |
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| Obverse description | At right, an oval vignette of President Moïse Tshombé, framed by radiating guilloche rays, printed in purple-brown on a yellow and orange underprint. At left, a central numeral panel reading '10' is enclosed within an intricate guilloche frame. The bank name 'BANQUE NATIONALE DU KATANGA' is printed in bold letterpress across the upper portion, with the place and date 'ELISABETHVILLE' and '1.12.60' at top, and the legend 'dix francs payables à vue' in script below the central panel. |
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| Reverse description | The reverse carries the vignette of the National Assembly building ('Bâtiment du 30 Juin') in Elisabethville (now Lubumbashi), rendered in an engraved style. The bank title 'BANQUE NATIONALE DU KATANGA' and the place name 'ELISABETHVILLE' appear at the top, with the denomination '10' repeated at the corners. |
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| Comments |
Katanga's secession from the newly independent Congo lasted from July 1960 to January 1963, and the Banque Nationale du Katanga issued this note to underpin Moïse Tshombé's breakaway state financially. The secession was backed by Belgian mining interests — primarily Union Minière du Haut-Katanga — giving the Katangese franc a degree of hard-currency credibility unusual for a territory that most of the world refused to recognize diplomatically.
The Waterlow & Sons printing date of 30 April 1945 reflects the use of pre-existing plate stock, a common wartime and postwar economy measure that Waterlow extended into the 1950s and 1960s for smaller-volume commissions. The note circulated for less than three years before the secession collapsed under UN military pressure.