Catalog
20 Makuta
| Issuer | Banque Nationale du Congo |
|---|---|
| Year | 1967-1970 |
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| Reference(s) | P#10 |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Central vignette of a traditional pirogue on a river, rendered in fine intaglio engraving, set against a guilloche underprint. The bank name and denomination appear in letterpress above and below the central design. |
| Reverse lettering | BANQUE NATIONALE DU CONGO 20 MAKUTA - 20 MAKUTA THOMAS DE LA RUE & COMPANY, LIMITED. |
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| Comments |
The Banque Nationale du Congo replaced the pre-independence Banque Centrale du Congo Belge et du Ruanda-Urundi structure, and this note belongs to the brief makuta series introduced after Mobutu's 1967 monetary reform renamed the subunit from centime. Thomas De La Rue handled the printing throughout this period, a common arrangement for newly independent francophone African states that lacked domestic printing infrastructure.
The series was short-lived. By 1971, Mobutu's authenticity campaign — which renamed the country Zaïre and pushed wholesale replacement of colonial-era nomenclature — rendered the entire Banque Nationale du Congo issue obsolete almost immediately.