1000 Francs CFA Belem

The Belem is a three-masted steel barque launched at Nantes in 1896, originally built to carry cacao from Brazil. She passed through several owners — including the Duke of Westminster — before eventually returning to French hands and becoming a sailing training vessel. Ivory Coast's issuance of commemorative silver under the BCEAO umbrella during the mid-2000s was a common fundraising mechanism for the West African monetary union, with coins largely sold to European collectors rather than circulating domestically.

The Belem remains the last 19th-century French merchant sailing ship still afloat.