CONGO (REPUBLIC)
Just a few coins
Congo 500 Francs 1986 (scales to about 210dpi)
Note: The “Congo” discussed on this page is the region once known as “Middle Congo” and for some time was a part of French Equatorial Africa. The former Belgian colony that until a few years ago was known as the “Republic of Zaire” is the “other” country also called “Congo”, however its full title is “The Democratic Republic of the Congo”
On 15th August 1960, the Republic of the Congo came into being when full independence from France was attained.
The first circulation coins specifically for the Republic of Congo were 100 Franc coins dated 1971. There are six other dates of this denomination with the last one being 1990. It would seem that the 1990 100 Francs must be the last circulation coins specifically of Congo. The country’s only other circulation coins were 1985 and 1986 dated 500 Franc coins which are a little scarce. Throughout the whole of the period when coins were issued specifically for the Republic of the Congo, the country was actually known as the Peoples’ Republic of the Congo (due to the particulars of the constitution), hence the circulation coins include the word “POPULAIRE” in the French legend on their obverse.
Additionally quite a number of commemorative coins have being issued by the Republic of the Congo. Quite a number of pieces of each of three denominations:- 100 Francs since 1984 in base alloys, 500 Francs 1991 & 1992 in silver and 1000 Francs since 1993 in silver. A new constitution for the country in 1992 saw the change in name of the country back to just “Republic of the Congo” in December 1992. Hence commemorative coins of 1993 onwards are without the word “POPULAIRE”.
Congo along with Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon is a member of the Central African States. These six nations form the Central Africa Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC), whose common central bank is the Bank of Central African States (BEAC).
I have already mentioned, that the Congo coins are somewhat thin in
number. The Bank of the Central African States issues (or has issued)
coins
of denominations 500 Francs down to 1 Franc and these are for use in
any
of the countries in CEMAC. Furthermore, the 1976-1991 dated 50 Francs
and
the 500 Francs 1976 to 1984 all had a letter A, B, C, D or E on them to
show their intended country of first issue. The pieces with the letter
“C” were the ones first issued in Congo. The Central African States
evolved
from the Equatorial African States and the coins of the Equatorial
African
States were widely used in Congo and are dated 1958 to 1973.
Added image at May-2013.