Wüstenschiff

The Central Bank of the Democratic Republic of Congo has begun issuing bank notes in denominations of 20,000, 10,000, 5,000 and 1000 francs. Up until now the largest note had been 500. But some small traders have expressed concern that the new notes will be difficult to use for business, and others say the new notes remind them of the old unit of currency - the zaïre - which during the region's more turbulent years had denominations ranging from 1 to 5 million.