10 000 Francs

The République Populaire du Congo — the former Moyen-Congo, not to be confused with the neighboring Democratic Republic — nationalized its central bank apparatus following the 1968 coup that brought Marien Ngouabi to power and declared a Marxist-Leninist state. This 10,000-franc note, the highest denomination of the inaugural P#1 series, was issued in 1971 as the new government sought to establish a distinct monetary identity separate from the CFA franc zone's common imagery.

Banque de France handled the printing, as it did for many Francophone African issuers regardless of their official political orientation — a pragmatic continuity that ideological declarations did little to disrupt.