1000 Francs Swans

The Bank of Central African States — the BEAC — issues commemorative coinage on behalf of six member nations: Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, and Gabon. This piece falls into a broad program of wildlife-themed silver issues the BEAC began producing in the 2000s, largely sold into European collector markets rather than circulated within the franc zone itself. The monetary union these nations share dates to 1945, when the CFA franc was pegged to the French franc at a fixed rate — a relationship that survived the transition to the euro.