50 Francs

The Banque Nationale du Congo was established in 1951 under Belgian colonial administration, but the notes bearing its name in this series were issued after independence in June 1960 — a deliberate continuity measure while the new state scrambled to build functional institutions amid the political catastrophe of the Congo Crisis. Bradbury Wilkinson had long-standing relationships with colonial currency authorities across Africa and were a natural choice for a government that had inherited rather than built its banking infrastructure.

Signature 1 on this series corresponds to the earliest post-independence signing authority. The brief 1961–1962 issue window reflects how quickly the Banque Nationale du Congo was superseded by the Banque Nationale de la République du Congo.