100 Francs 1953, Belgian Congo
| in Krause book | Number: 25a |
| Years of issue: | 01.06.1953 |
| Edition: | |
| Signatures: | Le Premier-Directeur: Hector - Jules Martin (17.06.1954 – 3.10.1960), Le Gouverneur: Paul-Marie Charles (06.08.1951 - 06.04. 1954) |
| Serie: | Banque Centrale du Congo Belge et du Ruanda-Urundi |
| Specimen of: | 01.07.1952 |
| Material: | Cotton fiber |
| Size (mm): | 158 x 100 |
| Printer: | American Bank Note Company, New-York |
* All pictures marked 
are increased partially by magnifying glass, the remaining open in full size by clicking on the image.
** The word "Specimen" is present only on some of electronic pictures, in accordance with banknote images publication rules of appropriate banks.
Description
Watermark:
Zebra's head.
Avers:
Domestication Program For African Forest Elephants In Belgian Congo:
In 1899, King Leopold II of Belgium opened an elephant domestication center at Kira Vunga. Then operations switched to Api Elephant Domestication Center and then to Gangala-na-Bodio Elephant Domestication Center (north-eastern Congo). At the height of the program they had as many as 80 tamed elephants, used for maintaining roads, plowing fields and transportation. They hoped to use the elephants to haul cargo from the Congolese interior to the southern terminus for boats on the Nile at Rejaf, in the Lado Enclave in Sudan. The program proved to be uneconomical, yet it continued in some form or another until the 1980's at least, into the post-colonial period.
Centered are The African oil Palms.
This slender tree brings great benefit to man. All palm use - from the bottom to the top, but its most valuable fruit from which the oil palm. Oil palm is widespread in the forest zone and the north - the valleys of the Niger and Benue. But it is most favorable for the area to the east of the lower Niger, where oil palm forms a continuous belt. Most of the oil obtained from the fruit of wild trees. Fruiting palm with five-six years of age. It brings two harvests a year. fruit bunches weighing 10-20 kg. and consist of several hundred dark red fruits.
Oil is usually prepared manually. Fruit, peeled nuclei pounded and boiled with water. The supernatant water on the surface of the oil is removed. In this way it is possible to obtain not more than 50% of the oil contained in the fruit. When used hand press, oil yield increased to 65%.
On background are 2 round emblems - blue flag with the golden star in the center. The star symbolizes the hope that illuminates the African darkness.
Revers:
The royal Inyambo cows.
Prized for their staggeringly large horns, good temperament and shiny coats, these beautiful animals form an important link to the past. The cows have inspired countless traditions, including the national dance of Rwanda.
There is an assumption that these cows belong to Ankole.
The Ankole is a breed or group of breeds of African cattle, belonging to the broad Sanga cattle grouping of African breeds. It was probably introduced to Uganda between five and seven hundred years ago by nomadic pastoralists from more northerly parts of the continent. It is distributed in much of eastern and central Africa, particularly in Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Burundi and parts of Tanzania. There are at least five distinct regional strains, some of which may be reported as breeds in their own right. These include:
the Bahima, found in Uganda and the Congo, associated with the Bahima and other peoples;
the Bashi in the Congo;
the Kigezi, kept by Bakiga people in the former Kigezi District of south-western Uganda;
the Ruzizi, from the Ruzizi Valley between Lake Kivu and Lake Tanganyika;
the Watusi, found in Burundi, Congo, Rwanda, Uganda and parts of Tanzania, associated with Watusi or Tutsi people in those areas. Two small herds of the Inyambo strain of Watusi are kept in Rwanda; it is not clear if or how these are related to the royal herd of Inyambo cattle reportedly confiscated and auctioned off in 1964. 
Comments:
Gouverneur: Hector-Jules MARTIN (17.06.1954 - 3.10.1960).
He was born in 1899 in Cuesmes. After studies at the Provincial Institute of Industrial Hainaut, it entered the Bank of Belgian Congo. He was appointed Secretary
Management in Leopoldville in 1922, Director in Elizabethville 1927 and director in Brussels in 1945. When the Central Bank the Belgian Congo and Ruanda-Urundi was established in 1951 H.Martin was appointed the first Director and in 1954, Governor.
Commissioner Hoover Foundation for Development University of Brussels, since 1942. Administrator-Treasurer Belgian Foundation in Montana, 1949. Administrator and Vice-
President of the Savings Bank of the Belgian Congo and Ruanda-Urundi, 1952-1958. Administrator and Vice-President of the Credit Company in Colonat and Industry, 1953-1958. treasurer Honorary Officer of the Belgian Red Cross. administrator
Chairman of Study Financial Group of the National Institute for the development of Bas-Congo "Inga", 1958-1960.
Le Gouverneur: Paul-Marie Charles (06.08.1951 - 06.04. 1954).
Paul-Marie CHARLES. He was born on April 28, 1885 in St-Josse-ten-Noode. Doctor of Law from the University of Louvain, he started his career in the judiciary. He was alternately Substitute of the Prosecutor of the King in Mons (1911), in Brussels (1913), Military Auditor in campaign (1914-1918), First Deputy Prosecutor of the King in Brussels (1920) and Substitute of the General Prosecutor near the Brussels Court of Appeal (1924). Then, he oriented his career to the Belgian Congo. He was successively Legal Counselor at the Ministry of the Colonies and Professor at the Colonial University of Antwerp (1925); Chief of Cabinet to the Minister of the Colonies (1927); Secretary General of the Colonial Department (1929). Between 1929 and 1934, King Albert I entrusted him with the colonial formation of the Prince Royal. He was called to the government and twice held the post of Minister of Colonies. Between the two terms, he served as Administrator General of the Colonies and Chief of Staff of this Ministry since June 27, 1931. January 13, 1938, he was appointed Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Belgian Bank of Congo, then Governor of this precursor of the Emission Institute. As such, he sat on the Regency Council of the National Bank of Belgium. He was also President of the Office of Exploitation of Colonial Transports (OTRACO), President of the Royal Belgian Colonial Union, President of the work of Saint Vincent de Paul and the Damien Foundation, Member of the Colonial Council since 1940. He died on April 6, 1954.
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