5 Francs Belgium - Queen Paola

This piece was issued by the Banque Centrale du Congo during one of the most chaotic periods in the country's modern history — the Second Congo War had begun in August 1998, eventually drawing in nine African nations and leaving millions dead. That a functioning central bank was producing commemorative-grade coinage at this moment says something about the disconnect between official monetary institutions and the economic reality on the ground, where hard currency of any kind was largely absent from daily commerce.

Queen Paola of Belgium's appearance on a Congolese franc issue reflects the collector-market licensing arrangements that characterized many Central African monetary authorities in the 1990s, not any political relationship with the Belgian crown.