5000 Francs

Mali's 1960 independence from French West Africa created an immediate problem: the new republic needed its own currency fast, and Western printing houses carried uncomfortable colonial associations. The government turned to Státní Tiskárna Cenin in Prague, then operating firmly within the Eastern Bloc's sphere of commercial relationships with newly independent African states. STC handled several such commissions during this period — Mali was not alone in that choice.

The Banque de la République du Mali itself had a short operational life before the Mali franc collapsed and the country rejoined the West African monetary union in 1967, making the entire P#5 series a product of a currency that lasted less than a decade.