20 Francs

The Banque du Congo Belge's wartime series presents a logistical puzzle that the pick number alone doesn't resolve. By 1940, with Belgium occupied by Germany, the colonial banking apparatus lost direct access to European printers under normal conditions. Thomas De La Rue continued production in London — the Congo remaining under the administration of the Belgian government-in-exile — making these notes one of the more direct material traces of how Belgian colonial finance was managed from Britain during the occupation.

P#15 is known to exist with multiple date and signature combinations, and authentication of legitimate signatories matters here more than condition.