1000 Francs CFA Padparadscha deluxe

Padparadscha is among the rarest corundum varieties — a pink-orange sapphire found almost exclusively in Sri Lanka's Elahera and Ratnapura regions, with occasional material from Madagascar and Tanzania. Demand from collectors of gem-set bullion has pushed mints toward increasingly small gold formats, and the Bank of Central African States has leaned into that market aggressively in recent years with themed deluxe issues targeting European and Asian secondary markets rather than domestic circulation.