1000 Kwanzas

Angola's 1984 series came at a particularly difficult moment for the kwanza. The currency had been introduced in 1977 to replace the escudo following independence, but by the mid-1980s chronic oil-revenue dependency and the ongoing civil war with UNITA were already eroding purchasing power severely. The 1000 kwanza note, a high denomination at issue, would within a few years become inadequate for ordinary transactions as inflation accelerated toward the late-1980s collapse that eventually forced the novo kwanza reform of 1990.

The note was printed by the Casa da Moeda in Portugal — a colonial-era relationship that independent Angola maintained for practical reasons well into the postwar decade.