1000 Francs Charon

Cameroon's collector coinage program — operated largely through the Monnaie de Paris under licensing arrangements — has issued hundreds of themed pieces since the 1990s, few of which circulate domestically or bear meaningful connection to Cameroonian monetary history. This piece draws on Greek mythology, specifically the ferryman of the dead who transported souls across the rivers Styx and Acheron. In Homer and later in Virgil's Aeneid, passage required payment — a coin placed on or in the mouth of the deceased — making the numismatic medium here unusually self-referential.

The obol placed with the dead was typically a low-value bronze or silver piece, whatever the family could spare.