Catalog
500 Francs
| Issuer | National Bank of Rwanda |
|---|---|
| Year | 2008 |
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| Value | 500 Francs |
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| Obverse description | Central vignette of the National Bank of Rwanda (BNR) headquarters building in Kigali, rendered in intaglio with fine architectural detail including the gated entrance and surrounding grounds. The denomination numeral 500 appears at upper left within a geometric underprint, with a latent image numeral at center right. Two manuscript signatures appear at lower left and lower right beneath their respective title inscriptions, with the date 01.02.2008 at lower center. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | BANKI NKURU Y'U RWANDA IYI NOTI YEMEWE N'AMATEGEKO 500 AMAFARANGA MAGANA ATANU 500 UMUYOBOZI WA BANKI WUNGIRIJE UMUYOBOZI WA BANKI BNR |
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| Comments |
Rwanda's post-genocide currency rebuilding involved a deliberate policy of visual and institutional rebranding, and by 2008 the National Bank had moved firmly away from the shared Banque Nationale du Rwanda identity that predated the political rupture of the 1990s. The 500 franc denomination sat at a practical mid-range level in daily Rwandan commerce — significant enough to require modern security features, which by this issue included color-shifting ink, a specification more commonly reserved for higher denominations in many African series of the period.
Pick 34 is the first 500 franc issue to carry the full suite of current security elements for this series, distinguishing it from earlier 500 franc types where latent image technology was absent.