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5 Zaïres Hotel Intercontinental
| Issuer | Banque du Zaïre |
|---|---|
| Year | 1971 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 5 Zaïres (5 ZRZ) |
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| Obverse description | Left-facing truncated bust of President Joseph-Désiré Mobutu, depicted wearing glasses and a military-collared jacket, occupying the central field. The curved legend 'REPUBLIQUE DU ZAIRE' arcs along the upper periphery, while the name 'J.D. MOBUTU' appears in bold raised lettering along the lower periphery. Two small decorative dots flank the portrait at the sides of the rim. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse script | Latin |
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| Additional information |
Issued to commemorate the opening of the Hotel Intercontinental in Kinshasa, this coin appeared just months after Mobutu Sese Seko renamed the country Zaïre — a rebrand that extended to the currency itself, replacing the Congolese franc with the zaïre in 1967. The hotel, built with foreign investment as a showpiece of Mobutu's authenticité campaign, was one of several prestige infrastructure projects he used to project modernity and political legitimacy onto the international stage.
The Banque du Zaïre issued relatively few commemorative silver pieces in its early years, making 1971 issues among the first expressions of the new national identity in precious metal.