5 Francs

The Banque Centrale du Congo Belge et du Ruanda-Urundi was itself a short-lived institution, established only in 1952 to manage currency across three territories under Belgian administration simultaneously. This 5 franc issue appeared just as the political ground was shifting — the Brussels World's Fair of 1958 brought international scrutiny to Belgian colonial policy, and within two years the Congo's independence movement had made the bank's own name obsolete. Ruanda-Urundi followed in 1962.

The aluminium-magnesium alloy was chosen colony-wide for low-denomination coinage partly to reduce shipping weight on long freight hauls from European mints to central Africa.