500 Francs

Djibouti's independence from France in 1977 left the territory's monetary system almost entirely reliant on French institutional infrastructure, and this note reflects that bluntly — printed by the Banque de France in Paris, on French cotton paper, for a nominally sovereign central bank established just two years prior. The Banque Nationale de Djibouti was itself a successor to the Banque de Djibouti et de Somalie, which had functioned under French colonial oversight.

The single signature line — "Le Gouverneur" — with no countersigning officer was a deliberate simplification for a young institution still consolidating its administrative apparatus through the early 1980s.