Catalog
500 Francs
| Issuer | Banque Nationale du Rwanda |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 500 Francs (500 RWF) |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Central vignette shows the facade of the National Bank of Rwanda headquarters in Kigali, rendered in fine intaglio engraving against a green guilloche underprint. The denomination numeral 500 appears in a geometric rosette at upper left, with a colour-shifting optically variable ink element at upper right. Two signature panels — Visi-Guverineri wa Mbere and Guverineri — appear in the lower portion, flanking the date 01.07.2004, with a vertical serial number running along the left margin. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The central vignette presents a fine intaglio scene of three women harvesting tea leaves in a plantation, with woven baskets beside them and a distant landscape in the background. The upper register carries the bilingual bank title and the legal tender clause, while the lower margin bears the denomination in French and English. A geometric colour-printed element occupies the right margin, and a latent watermark window is visible on the left. |
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| Comments |
Rwanda's currency was entirely reconfigured following the 1994 genocide, and the Banque Nationale du Rwanda spent the late 1990s and early 2000s rebuilding a credible monetary infrastructure almost from scratch. This 2004 series reflected that reconstruction effort — deliberately modernized with optically variable ink and a security thread at a time when the country was still rebuilding basic institutional trust.
The Pick 30 printing date of 30 April 2004 aligns with a period of relative macroeconomic stabilization, when the franc had been brought under reasonable control after years of wartime inflation and post-conflict disruption.