50 Francs

The Banque Centrale du Congo Belge et du Ruanda-Urundi was established in 1952 to replace the earlier Banque du Congo Belge, separating central banking functions from commercial ones at a moment when Belgium was restructuring colonial financial administration across its African territories. This note is among the earliest issued under the new institution's name.

American Bank Note Company's involvement here reflects a broader postwar shift — several Belgian colonial authorities turned to New York printers after European printing infrastructure had been disrupted. The ABNC intaglio work on this series is notably finer than what predecessor notes managed from Brussels.