Catalog
50 Ekuele
| Issuer | Banco Popular |
|---|---|
| Year | 1975 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Printer | Thomas De La Rue & Company, London, United Kingdom |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse is dominated by a central vignette of the timber industry: a loaded logging truck and a mechanical excavator at a lumber yard are rendered in detailed intaglio, with a river and forest in the background captioned EMBARCADERO DE MADERA. At left, the national coat of arms — a shield with a silk-cotton tree, six stars, and a silver band above the motto UNIDAD PAZ JUSTICIA — is printed in a circular cartouche. A blank guilloche oval occupies the right field, and banana and cocoa pod vignettes appear along the lower border. |
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| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Blank watermark areas visible as oval fields on both obverse and reverse |
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| Comments |
Equatorial Guinea's 1975 currency reform replaced the peseta guineana with the ekuele — a renaming exercise tied closely to the country's post-independence push to sever visible links to Spain. The Banco Popular was the sole issuing authority under Francisco Macías Nguema's government, a regime that by 1975 had already expelled most foreign nationals and dismantled the banking infrastructure inherited from colonial administration.
Thomas De La Rue handled the printing, a fairly routine assignment for them in Francophone and newly independent African states during this period. What makes this series historically pointed is the brevity of the ekuele's own lifespan — it was replaced by the ekpwele in 1979 following Macías Nguema's overthrow and execution.