10 Zaïres

The Banque du Zaïre was established in 1971 following Mobutu Sese Seko's renaming of the Democratic Republic of the Congo as Zaïre — part of his broader "authenticité" campaign to purge colonial nomenclature and recast national identity around an invented African past. The zaïre itself had been introduced in 1967 at a rate of 1 zaïre to 1,000 old francs, briefly a credible currency before chronic deficit spending began eroding it.

Giesecke & Devrient's Leipzig facility was operating under East German state oversight during this period, making this an interesting Cold War-era printing commission from a nominally non-aligned African government.