500 Francs

The Banque Nationale du Congo was established in 1960 as one of the first institutional acts of the newly independent state, replacing the Banque Centrale du Congo Belge et du Ruanda-Urundi. This series, printed by Bradbury Wilkinson at their New Malden works, was prepared under conditions of considerable political turbulence — the Katanga secession was still active when early dates in the 1961–1964 range were being issued, and the central government's monetary authority was genuinely contested in parts of the country.

Bradbury Wilkinson's intaglio work for postcolonial African states in this period is generally consistent in quality, though the short lifespan of the Banque Nationale du Congo — superseded by the Banque Nationale du Zaïre in 1964 — kept total print runs modest.