1000 Francs CFA World Cup Soccer

Bénin issued a wave of silver commemoratives throughout the mid-1990s under licensing arrangements that had little to do with the country's own sporting or cultural life — the 1996 football issues were produced primarily for the European collector market, distributed through dealers in Germany and Switzerland rather than through any Beninese banking channel. The CFA franc itself was never convertible at face within Bénin for coins of this type; the 1000-franc denomination was purely nominal.