100 Francs

Rwanda's earliest currency series, issued by the Banque Nationale du Rwanda after the country's separation from the Rwandan franc zone shared with Burundi, required rapid establishment of a distinct monetary identity. Thomas De La Rue handled the printing throughout the series run, a common arrangement for newly independent Francophone African states that lacked domestic printing infrastructure.

The P#8 spans a notably long issue window — over a decade — during which Rwanda experienced significant political consolidation under Grégoire Kayibanda and then the 1973 coup that brought Habyarimana to power. Whether the note's design or security specification changed across that period is worth examining before attribution to a specific year.