The BCEAO has issued commemorative silver pieces under member-state names — here Senegal — that have no practical circulation history whatsoever, existing purely for the collector export market. Leif Eriksson's appearance on a West African franc coin is an artifact of the early 2000s commemorative licensing trade, in which third-party minting programs sold themed issues to collectors worldwide regardless of any geographic or historical connection to the issuing authority. The Norse explorer's 1000th anniversary of his North American landfall drove a wave of such issues across dozens of nominal issuers in 2000–2001.
The BCEAO has issued commemorative silver pieces under member-state names — here Senegal — that have no practical circulation history whatsoever, existing purely for the collector export market. Leif Eriksson's appearance on a West African franc coin is an artifact of the early 2000s commemorative licensing trade, in which third-party minting programs sold themed issues to collectors worldwide regardless of any geographic or historical connection to the issuing authority. The Norse explorer's 1000th anniversary of his North American landfall drove a wave of such issues across dozens of nominal issuers in 2000–2001.