3000 Francs CFA Catherine de Médicis

Catherine de Medici has no meaningful connection to Central Africa — this is a bullion-adjacent novelty issue exploiting the BEAC's minting authority to produce low-weight gold pieces aimed squarely at the European collector market. The Bank of Central African States has issued dozens of such pieces since the 2010s, pairing French historical figures with CFA franc denominations that bear no relation to actual monetary circulation in member states like Cameroon or Gabon.

At 0.5 grams of .999 gold, the face value of 3000 francs CFA is a fraction of the metal's spot value — a deliberate inversion of normal fiduciary logic that marks this firmly as a collector artifact rather than currency.