5000 Leones

The 5000 Leones was the highest denomination in regular circulation for most of the period covered by this series, a position that reflects the sustained inflationary pressure Sierra Leone experienced following the eleven-year civil war that ended in 2002. By the time this note entered circulation, the Leone had lost the vast majority of its pre-war purchasing power, making a 5000-unit note a practical daily necessity rather than a large-value instrument.

Thomas De La Rue's involvement with Sierra Leonean currency dates back decades, and the security package here — OVI ink alongside a hologram strip — places it firmly in the post-2000 West African upgrading wave, when several ECOWAS-adjacent central banks standardized on similar De La Rue feature sets.