Mauritania's first post-independence central bank notes were introduced following the creation of the Banque Centrale de Mauritanie in 1973, when the country finally severed its monetary ties with the West African CFA franc zone — a break that had been politically contentious since independence in 1960. The ouguiya, subdivided into five khoums, replaced the CFA franc at a rate of 1 ouguiya to 5 CFA francs, an unusual quinquepartite subdivision found almost nowhere else in modern currency.
Production by the Banque de France printing works in Paris was common for Francophone African states of this period, though Mauritania's relationship with France was already strained by the time these notes entered circulation.
Mauritania's first post-independence central bank notes were introduced following the creation of the Banque Centrale de Mauritanie in 1973, when the country finally severed its monetary ties with the West African CFA franc zone — a break that had been politically contentious since independence in 1960. The ouguiya, subdivided into five khoums, replaced the CFA franc at a rate of 1 ouguiya to 5 CFA francs, an unusual quinquepartite subdivision found almost nowhere else in modern currency.
Production by the Banque de France printing works in Paris was common for Francophone African states of this period, though Mauritania's relationship with France was already strained by the time these notes entered circulation.