10 000 Francs CFA General Gnassingbe Eyadema

Gnassingbé Eyadéma seized power in Togo in January 1967 — the first military coup carried out by a native African in sub-Saharan Africa, by his own account a distinction he cultivated carefully. By 1977, a decade into his rule, his government was issuing silver commemoratives through the Monnaie de Paris that circulated almost exclusively in the international collector market, never in Togolese pockets. The CFA franc zone arrangement meant these high-denomination pieces had no practical domestic role; they were prestige objects dressed as currency.

Eyadéma would hold power until his death in 2005, making him one of Africa's longest-serving heads of state.