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10 000 Francs Independence
| Issuer | Dahomey (1960-1975) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1971 |
| Type | Non-circulating coin |
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|---|---|
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| Obverse lettering | 1971 REPUBLIQUE DU DAHOMEY 1er Août 1970 10ème Anniversaire FRATERNITE JUSTICE TRAVAIL 10.000 FRANCS CFA 900 |
| Reverse description | A finely detailed naturalistic scene depicts four hippopotamuses in and around a body of water, rendered in high relief against a deeply mirrored proof field. Two hippopotamuses are shown partially submerged in the foreground, their heads emerging from the water's surface, while a third hippopotamus stands prominently on the left bank with its head facing the viewer, and a fourth is visible to the right with its mouth open wide. Stylized clouds are engraved in the upper field, lending a sense of landscape depth. The legend HIPPOPOTAME is inscribed along the lower rim in widely spaced serif capitals, within an inner beaded border. |
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| Additional information |
Dahomey issued this gold piece in 1971 to commemorate the eleventh anniversary of independence from France, part of a broader series of high-denomination commemorative issues that were never intended for domestic circulation. The country had virtually no indigenous gold-working tradition in the modern monetary sense, and these coins were produced entirely for the international collector market — most likely struck at the Paris Mint under contract.
Three years after this coin was issued, President Mathieu Kérékou's coup of October 1972 set the country on a path toward Marxist-Leninist governance, and by 1975 Dahomey ceased to exist as a name, replaced by the People's Republic of Benin.