100 Francs Grand-Bassam

The Banque de l'Afrique Occidentale was a private colonial institution — not a state central bank — holding the note-issuing concession for French West Africa, and Grand-Bassam was the administrative capital of Côte d'Ivoire at the time of this issue, though the city was already in decline after yellow fever epidemics forced the colonial seat inland to Boissy-ville, later Abidjan.

Bellery-Desfontaines was primarily a poster artist and illustrator, an unusual choice for banknote design; the Florian brothers — Frédéric and Ernest-Théophile — handled the engraving, a family partnership that appears across several BAO issues of the period. The Banque de France printed the series under contract, as the BAO lacked its own production facilities.