5 Zaïres

By 1987, Mobutu Sese Seko's government had been printing money to cover deficits for over a decade, and the zaïre was in freefall against hard currencies. Brass coinage of this denomination was produced largely as a formality — inflation was advancing faster than the coins could retain purchasing power, and within a few years the currency would be redenominated, then abandoned entirely when the country itself was renamed in 1997.