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500 Kwanzas
| Issuer | Banco Nacional de Angola |
|---|---|
| Year | 1991 |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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| Obverse description | At right, a circular vignette bears conjoined portraits of President José Eduardo dos Santos (1942) in the background and António Agostinho Neto (1922–1979), first President of Angola, in the foreground. The denomination appears at left, with the national motto 'A VITÓRIA É CERTA' inscribed across the note. A guilloche underprint fills the field in a characteristic multi-colour pattern. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | BANCO NACIONAL DE ANGOLA 500 A VITÓRIA É CERTA (Translation: National Bank of Angola, Victory is Certain) |
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| Comments |
The 1991 Angolan 500 Kwanza note arrived late in a currency that was already collapsing. Inflation throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s was catastrophic — the kwanza had been introduced in 1977 to replace the colonial escudo at par, but by 1991 had lost virtually all purchasing power through a combination of civil war expenditure, oil revenue mismanagement, and Soviet subsidy withdrawal. Thomas De La Rue produced a well-engineered note for a denomination that was functionally worthless within months of issue.
The series was superseded in 1995 when the novo kwanza replaced the original at a rate of 1,000 to one.