50 Centimes

The Banque Centrale du Congo Belge et du Ruanda-Urundi was itself a short-lived institution, established in 1952 to replace the earlier Comité Monétaire and dissolved in 1960 when the Congo gained independence — meaning this coin type was struck across an issuing authority's entire operational lifespan. The shift to aluminium reflected postwar metal economics rather than any colonial cost-cutting agenda specific to the territory; the same material was appearing in low-denomination coinage across multiple European colonial currencies simultaneously.