500 Kwanzas

The 1991 Angolan 500 Kwanza note arrived late in a currency that was already collapsing. Inflation throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s was catastrophic — the kwanza had been introduced in 1977 to replace the colonial escudo at par, but by 1991 had lost virtually all purchasing power through a combination of civil war expenditure, oil revenue mismanagement, and Soviet subsidy withdrawal. Thomas De La Rue produced a well-engineered note for a denomination that was functionally worthless within months of issue.

The series was superseded in 1995 when the novo kwanza replaced the original at a rate of 1,000 to one.