The 2 Sylis was part of Guinea's 1971 coinage reform, which replaced the Guinean franc after the country severed its last formal financial ties with the CFA franc zone — a break Sékou Touré had initiated as far back as 1960, the year of independence, making Guinea the only French West African territory to reject the franc zone outright from the start. The syli itself was named after the elephant in Susu, a deliberate rejection of colonial monetary nomenclature.
The 2 Sylis was part of Guinea's 1971 coinage reform, which replaced the Guinean franc after the country severed its last formal financial ties with the CFA franc zone — a break Sékou Touré had initiated as far back as 1960, the year of independence, making Guinea the only French West African territory to reject the franc zone outright from the start. The syli itself was named after the elephant in Susu, a deliberate rejection of colonial monetary nomenclature.