1000 Francs

The Banque Centrale du Congo Belge et du Ruanda-Urundi was a short-lived institution — established in 1952 to replace the earlier Comité Monétaire, it was itself dissolved in 1960 when Belgian Congo independence shattered the unified currency zone into separate national systems for Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi. Notes from the 1958–59 print run were still in active circulation at that moment of institutional collapse, giving them an awkward transitional life under successor authorities.

Bradbury Wilkinson's contract for this high-denomination series reflects the colonial administration's preference for London-area security printers over Belgian alternatives — a pattern consistent across several late-colonial African issues of the period.