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500 Ouguiya
| Issuer | Banque Centrale de Mauritanie |
|---|---|
| Year | 1979-1996 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | 161 × 87 mm |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is dominated by an intricate all-over guilloche and geometric underprint in green, orange, and brown, inspired by traditional Moorish and Islamic decorative motifs. Two large stylised crescent-like ornamental vignettes flank a central blank reserve panel, framed by interlocking geometric borders with fine arabesque detail. The bank title in Arabic script runs along the top border, the denomination in Arabic calligraphy appears at centre-left, and the date with two signature lines and their Arabic-script titles are printed below. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse presents two intaglio-printed vignettes set within an elaborate guilloche border of interlocking rosettes and geometric panels in green, brown, and red. To the left, a scene of field workers harvesting grain by hand occupies a rounded vignette; to the right, a detailed industrial vignette shows a large iron-ore mining and processing complex with mechanical structures and steam. The denomination numerals "500" appear in all four corners, with the bank name in French across the top header and the denomination spelled out in French along the lower border. |
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| Comments |
Giesecke & Devrient produced this series across a remarkably long seventeen-year span without a redesign — unusual discipline for a central bank that had only been issuing its own currency since 1973, when Mauritania left the West African CFA franc zone and introduced the ouguiya. The longevity of the P#6 type likely reflects both budgetary conservatism and the relatively low volumes required for a sparsely populated country.
Watermark-only security was already minimal by the standards of the period. By the mid-1990s, when this type was finally retired, comparable denominations across the region carried security threads as standard.