20 000 Dobras

São Tomé and Príncipe has issued its own currency, the dobra, since 1977 following independence from Portugal, but the denomination structure was forced upward repeatedly by inflation — the 20,000 dobra note being a direct consequence of that pressure. A monetary reform in 2010 redenominated the dobra at 1,000:1, replacing it with the second dobra, which effectively rendered this entire series obsolete almost overnight.

Thomas De La Rue's involvement here is unremarkable for the region; they printed the majority of Lusophone African issues through this period. The long production window — nearly two decades on a single design — reflects both budget constraints and the limited print volumes typical of a country with a population under 200,000.