100 Francs

The Banque de l'Afrique Occidentale held a private commercial banking charter — not a central bank mandate — yet operated as the sole issuing authority across French West Africa from 1901 onward. That arrangement, unusual by any standard, meant this note circulated across territories spanning Senegal, Dahomey, Guinea, and Côte d'Ivoire simultaneously, with no territorial restriction printed on the face.

The Florian brothers were a minor Parisian printing house, and their involvement here — rather than the dominant Banque de France printers — suggests a subcontracted job, possibly during a period of heavy demand on the larger ateliers in the mid-1920s. Georges Duval's engraving work is the stronger pedigree in this pairing.