100 Francs Dakar

The Banque de l'Afrique Occidentale was a privately held colonial institution — not a state bank — operating under French government concession, which gave its notes a quasi-commercial character unusual among colonial currencies. The Dakar payability designation placed this note firmly within Senegal's commercial infrastructure, where the BAO held a monopoly on note issuance across French West Africa until 1955.

Bellery-Desfontaines was primarily a poster artist and illustrator, best known for Art Nouveau decorative work — an unconventional choice for a banknote commission, and his influence on the obverse design reflects the period's willingness to treat currency as applied art. The Florian brothers, Frédéric and Ernest-Théophile, were among the more accomplished engravers working for the Banque de France during this period and handled much of the intaglio work on French colonial issues of the 1920s.