1000 Leones

The 1000 Leones denomination entered circulation during Sierra Leone's post-conflict reconstruction period, after the civil war that devastated the country through the 1990s formally ended in January 2002. The timing of this series is not coincidental — restoring functional currency infrastructure was a deliberate part of reestablishing state authority across formerly rebel-held territory.

Thomas De La Rue's involvement was practically obligatory for a central bank rebuilding from near-collapse with limited domestic capacity. The security specification here is modest: watermark and thread only, with no additional optical features, which likely reflects budget constraints during a period of heavy international aid dependency rather than any technical limitation on De La Rue's part.