500 Dobras

The 500 Dobras denomination was part of São Tomé and Príncipe's post-independence monetary consolidation, issued after the country had spent its first decade and a half experimenting with economic structures following separation from Portugal in 1975. By 1993, the islands were deep into IMF-backed structural adjustment, and the dobra had been significantly devalued — this note's face value represented a meaningful sum when first issued but eroded quickly through the decade.

Thomas De La Rue's involvement was typical for Lusophone African states of the period, who regularly contracted London security printers rather than developing domestic printing capacity. The watermark remains the sole security feature — modest even by early 1990s standards.