1000 Francs CFA Pope John Paul II - Canonization

Issued the same year as the April 2014 canonization ceremony in Rome — the largest in modern Church history, with an estimated 800,000 pilgrims attending — this is one of dozens of nearly identical issues struck by various West African CFA nations through the Monnaie de Paris and private minting houses for the collector market. Benin has no particular historical or demographic connection to the Catholic Church that would make this issue anything more than a licensed commemorative.