5 Zaïres

The Banque du Zaïre replaced the Banque Nationale du Congo in 1971 as part of Mobutu Sese Seko's broader authenticity campaign — "Zaïrianisation" — which renamed the country, the currency, and ultimately pushed Belgian and European commercial interests out of the banking sector. The zaïre itself, introduced in 1967, held reasonably well through the early 1970s before inflation began its long, destructive work on the currency's purchasing power.

Giesecke & Devrient handled printing for multiple Zaïrian issues through this period, a relationship that continued even as the country's finances deteriorated sharply into the 1980s.