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500 Bipkwele
| Issuer | Banco de Guinea Ecuatorial |
|---|---|
| Year | 1979 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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| Obverse description | Black intaglio on green and pink underprint, with a portrait vignette of Rey Uganda at right and the national Coat of Arms at center. The face bears the bank title and date inscription in a formal layout typical of Spanish-printed issues of the period. |
|---|---|
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| Protection description | Portrait watermark of T. E. Nkogo |
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| Comments |
Equatorial Guinea's currency history through the late 1970s is a tangle of political rupture. The country abandoned the CFA franc zone in 1975 under Macías Nguema and introduced the ekwele — later pluralized as bipkwele — partly as an assertion of independence from the French monetary bloc. By 1979, the regime was collapsing from within; Macías Nguema was overthrown in August of that year by his own nephew, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, and executed in September.
Notes from this 1979 issue therefore straddle a coup. The Fábrica Nacional de Moneda y Timbre in Madrid printed for several African issuers during this period, and the bipkwele series was among its more politically turbulent commissions.