Catalog
500 Francs
| Issuer | Banque de la République du Mali |
|---|---|
| Year | 1960 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Red on light-blue and orange underprint, with intaglio-printed vignette of President Modibo Keita at left. The face carries the bank title and denomination inscriptions against a guilloche underprint in light-blue and orange tones. The date of issue, 22 September 1960, and the statutory counterfeiting warning are printed across the lower portion of the note. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Printed in red on a light ground, the central vignette presents an intaglio portrait of a traditionally dressed Malian woman at left, her head covered and adorned with beaded jewelry, set against a detailed rural scene of a tent encampment with conical-roofed structures and palm trees extending to the right. The denomination numeral 500 appears in each corner, with repeated microtext numerals along the borders, and the value cartouche "CINQ CENTS FRANCS" is boldly rendered in a panel at the lower centre. |
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| Comments |
Mali's 500 Francs of 1960 is one of the more geographically surprising notes of the early independence period. Státní Tiskárna Cenin — the Czechoslovak state security printer in Prague — was an unlikely choice for a newly independent West African republic, but Cold War alignment opened doors that Western European printers sometimes could not. Several francophone African states turned to Eastern Bloc printers in the early 1960s, partly on ideological grounds, partly because the terms were favorable.
Pick 3 is scarce. The Malian franc was short-lived; Mali rejoined the West African franc zone in 1967, and most of its independent-currency notes were withdrawn and destroyed.