100 Francs CFA Benedikt XVI

Benin has no functioning domestic mint and issues commemorative coins almost exclusively through the Bavarian State Mint and similar European contract facilities — this piece being no exception. The Republic of Benin's commemorative program is openly a revenue-generating exercise aimed at collector markets, bearing no relationship to the country's actual currency circulation, which operates under the West African CFA franc administered by the BCEAO.

Benedict XVI resigned the papacy in February 2013, the first pope to do so since Gregory XII in 1415.