The Republic of Congo is a former West African French colony, and therefore the history of its currency dates back to the colonial period. The CFA Franc, which runs in the country as a currency, is formally fifteen years older than the country. Congo gained independence in 1960, and the first colonial franc appeared in 1945.
Currency to the colonies!
Even before World War II, France had the idea that it would be nice to create a special monetary-emission system in order to facilitate the functioning of the colonies. Special banknotes should accelerate economic processes outside of France, without affecting the entire national economy too much.
So, in 1945, with the filing of bankers and big capitalists who had African "interests", the CFA franc appeared, literally - the "Colonial franc of Africa" (colonies françaises d'Afrique). Its legitimacy spread to all French territories on the Black Continent.
Independence is independence and money is important
The irreversibility of certain processes forced France to abandon direct control overseas territories and cease to be a colonial power. However, economic control was necessary. Young states that gained independence (including Congo) were invited to stay in the Franc Zone in exchange for financial assistance, loans, and more. At the same time, the CFA franc, retaining the abbreviations, undertook to change the offensive "colonialism" in the title to "franc financial cooperation in Central Africa" (franc de la Coopération Financière en Afrique centrale).
The Republic of Congo, Gabon, the Central African Republic, Cameroon and Chad accepted the proposal. This will be the answer to the question of what currency is in Congo.
Harm or benefit?
Although there has been talk over the past few years in these countries about introducing the national currency and leaving the Franc Zone, this is unlikely to happen in the short term. CFA BEAS countries rely on French finance, do not experience problems with currency conversion and with the movement of goods.
It is important that they all have common borders, are located in the same region and even have a related population, and a single currency helps to solve issues and problems between states more easily and quickly.
In 1986, having seen enough of the neighbors, the Equatorial Guinea, which did not have the status of the former French colony, joined the Francophone Financial Union. She at one time was a colony of Spain.
Anyway, your own
At first, these states had a colonial franc. He was gradually replaced by a new one. Since 1973, coins began to be issued in denominations in whole francs, and its hundredths - centimes.
The tendency from the “self” of the CFA franc arose from 1976 to 1992, when the letters of the country where it should be predominantly in circulation were minted on coins. Although all francs in all countries of the Zone should go without restrictions. By the way, for the currency of the Congo, it was the letter C. Earlier and after, the name of the country was not applied on CFA francs.
In 1985, a new member of the Zone, Equatorial Guinea, showed its peculiarity. Firstly, all the inscriptions on her currency were in Spanish, and not in French. Secondly, on the obverse of the coins for the first time in history was the full name of the country.
In 1993, letters indicating countries appeared on banknotes. For the currency of the Congo, this is T. In 2002, new banknotes were issued, which are in use to this day. It is the banknote issued as the currency of the Republic of the Congo that is placed on the photo at the beginning of the article. You can look at one more monetary unit above. On the corner of this banknote of the currency of the Congo there is a "T", which confirms its belonging to the named state.
Beginning of the End?
Many experts believe that the letters mentioned are the beginning of the end of the CFA franc. Although, of course, it’s easier to track cash flows and the contribution of individual countries to a financial union with letters. However, time will tell. In the meantime, CFA BEAS Franc remains the currency of the Congo.