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10 000 Francs CFA Journey to the West on a Starry Night
| Issuer | Bank of Central African States |
|---|---|
| Year | 2023 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 10 000 Francs CFA |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Elaborate high-relief composition depicting the principal characters of the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West. The scene shows Tang Sanzang and his disciples — Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie, and Sha Wujing — traversing a desert landscape, accompanied by the dragon prince in the form of a white horse. A large Chinese title inscription occupying the right field reads 西遊記. The background incorporates swirling motifs inspired by Vincent van Gogh's Starry Night, rendered in antique finish with dramatic contrasts of light and shadow across the expansive 80 mm flan. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Journey to the West — the 16th-century Chinese novel attributed to Wu Cheng'en — has generated a staggering volume of commemorative issues from mints across Asia and Europe over the past two decades, most of them chasing the same collector demographic. This Bank of Central African States issue is a curiosity in that lineage: a Central African franc denomination applied to a subject with zero geographic or cultural connection to the issuing authority, a practice BEAC has used repeatedly to capture the novelty coin market through licensed themes.
The composition — a silver-plated copper core — places this firmly in the bullion-adjacent novelty category rather than precious metal coinage proper.