1500 Francs CFA Barack Obama

This piece belongs to a wave of African novelty gold issues that flooded the market around 2010–2013, produced for the collector trade rather than any genuine monetary purpose. Ivory Coast — then in the middle of a violent post-election crisis that would kill over 3,000 people — lent its nominal authority to dozens of such coins during this period, most struck by European private mints under licensing arrangements with little or no involvement from Abidjan.

Obama's likeness appears on coinage of several African nations he never visited as president, a legal grey area that the U.S. government consistently declined to challenge.