Zaire, officially the Republic of Zaire, was a sovereign state between 1971 and 1997 in Central Africa but is now known as the Democratic Republic of Congo. The country is often referred to by its acronym, the DRC, or Congo (Kinshasa). The capital is always added parenthetically to tell it apart from the other Congo republic, officially called the Republic of the Congo. The Democratic Republic of Congo is located in central Africa and is the second-largest country on the continent. The Congolese franc is the currency of the country and it is subdivided into 100 centimes. There were two editions of the Franc with the second edition being the new Congolese Franc.
In 1887, the first Franc was introduced and had the same value as the Belgian Franc. The Congolese Franc circulated in the countries of Burundi and Rwanda in 1916. However, both countries later issued their own Franc. In 1967, Congo declared independence, and Zaire replaced the Franc with 1,000 Francs equivalent to 1 Zaire. The Franc was then re-introduced in 1997 which eliminated the Zaire. The exchange rate for 1 Franc is 100,000 new Zaires. This was equivalent to 300 trillion old francs. In 2010, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the country’s independence from Belgium, the Central Bank printed commemorative notes.
