10 000 Francs Independence, Pattern

Chad gained independence from France on August 11, 1960, but coinage development lagged considerably — the country remained within the CFA franc zone and relied on shared Central African issues rather than striking its own. This 1970 pattern represents an early attempt to establish a distinctly Chadian high-denomination piece, one that never advanced to circulation. Patterns of this type from francophone sub-Saharan states in the late 1960s and early 1970s were frequently produced in Paris by the Monnaie de Paris as speculative proposals, often at the instigation of coin dealers rather than the issuing government itself.