100 Kwacha

The 100 Kwacha note from this period coincides with a significant redenomination: in 2012, the Reserve Bank of Malawi devalued the kwacha by roughly 50 percent against the US dollar following pressure from the IMF, a move that ended a prolonged period of fixed-rate policy that had effectively created a thriving black market for foreign currency. The devaluation was politically contentious — President Joyce Banda pushed it through shortly after taking office following the death of Bingu wa Mutharika, reversing her predecessor's stubborn peg.

Pick 59 belongs to the redesigned series introduced to stabilize confidence in the currency during that transition. The security specification for this series is modest — watermark and thread only, without the foil elements that appear on higher-denomination contemporaries.