20 000 Francs CFA African Fauna

Benin's large-format silver fauna issues of the 1990s were produced under the country's broad licensing arrangement with European minting houses — this piece almost certainly struck by B.H. Mayer's Kunstprägeanstalt in Munich, which handled much of Benin's commemorative program during this period. The republic itself had no domestic minting capacity, making these coins purely revenue instruments sold to collectors abroad rather than anything approaching circulating currency.

At over 846 grams, this is essentially a kilo-class piece, and the 20,000 franc face value was purely nominal — BCEAO-zone monetary policy never sanctioned anything close to this denomination for actual use.