5000 Francs

Mali's 1967 note issue came just six years after independence and only three years after the country abandoned the West African franc zone, establishing its own Malian franc in 1962 — a monetary separation from the CFA bloc that proved economically damaging and was ultimately reversed in 1984. The 5000 Malian francs denomination sat at the top of the circulating series, putting it in the hands of traders and commercial transactions rather than everyday retail use.

Thomas De La Rue's contract for this series was typical of the period, when Francophone African states routinely turned to British security printers rather than French ones — a quiet irony given the colonial history involved.