Catalog
5000 Francs
| Issuer | Banque de la République du Burundi |
|---|---|
| Year | 1978-1995 |
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| Value | 5000 Francs |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | BANQUE DE LA REPUBLIQUE DU BURUNDI IBANKI YA REPUBLIKA Y`UBURUNDI CINQ MILLE FRANCS AMAFRANGA IBIHUMBI BITANU UBUMWE - IBIKORWA - AMAJAMBERE UNITE - TRAVAIL - PROGRESS LE GOUVERNEUR LE VICE-GOUVERNEUR 01-10-81 5000 (Translation: Bank of the Republic of Burundi. Five thousand francs. Unity, work, progress. The governor, the vice governor.) |
| Reverse description | Black intaglio print over a multicolour guilloche underprint. The central vignette presents a view of the Port of Bujumbura, with a cargo ship and harbour cranes rendered in fine line engraving. Bilingual text in French and Kirundi runs along the lower margin, incorporating the statutory counterfeiting warning. |
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| Comments |
Thomas De La Rue printed multiple generations of Burundian high-denomination notes across the postcolonial decades, and this series — running nearly seventeen years — reflects the central bank's unusual monetary conservatism during a period when neighboring states were reissuing constantly. Burundi's currency remained under significant pressure throughout the 1980s, partly due to structural adjustment demands from the IMF and the country's near-total dependence on coffee export revenues, which made hard-currency reserves chronically volatile.
The extended date range on P#32 suggests successive printings with minimal design alteration — a deliberate policy choice, not an oversight. De La Rue's contract work for francophone African central banks often included provisions for reorder batches using standing plates.