500 Kwanzas

Angola's shift to polymer for this denomination followed a decade of severe economic turbulence — oil prices collapsed in 2014 and the kwanza lost over 80% of its value against the dollar by 2020, creating practical pressure to issue more durable, harder-to-counterfeit notes as public confidence in the currency eroded. The SAFEGUARD™ substrate is produced by CCL Secure (formerly Innovia), though Giesecke+Devrient handles the printing and finishing in Leipzig.

P#161 is among the earliest polymer issues in Angola's modern series, marking a material departure from the cotton-based notes that preceded it.