10 000 Francs CFA Euro Introduction

This piece was issued to mark the eurozone's cash changeover of January 2002, when twelve EU member states simultaneously withdrew their legacy currencies — an event Benin, as a CFA franc user, observed from the outside. The CFA franc's fixed peg to the French franc had already been mechanically converted to a euro peg at the irrevocable rate of 655.957 francs per euro in January 1999, so the physical introduction of euro banknotes and coins in France carried direct monetary consequences for Benin without a single centime changing hands there.

At a kilogram of gold-plated .999 silver, this is a bullion-scale commemorative produced for the collector market, not circulation. Mintage figures for Beninese issues of this type are rarely published with precision.