1000 Dobras

The 1989 issue came during a period when São Tomé and Príncipe was still operating under a single-party socialist framework — the MLSTP had governed since independence in 1975, and the dobra itself dated from that same year, replacing the Portuguese escudo at par. Economic reform pressure was building; multiparty democracy and a new constitution arrived in 1990, and a broader currency restructuring would follow within years.

Thomas De La Rue's involvement was common across Lusophone African states whose central banks lacked domestic printing infrastructure. The watermark remains the sole listed security feature — modest by even the standards of the period.