5 Francs Porto-Novo

Banque de l'Afrique Occidentale emergency fractional notes were authorized in response to the acute metal shortage of the First World War, when silver coinage vanished from circulation across French West Africa just as it did in the metropole. The Porto-Novo payability designation on this type — one of several issues specifying different cities of payment — was a practical administrative constraint, not a banking formality; a note issued at Porto-Novo was not legally redeemable elsewhere, a restriction that created real friction in a colonial economy where traders moved constantly between territories.

Bellery-Desfontaines, primarily an Art Nouveau poster artist and illustrator, was an unconventional choice for a wartime emergency instrument. Florian's engraving work for the Banque de France brought the design into production, but the note's relatively short active window — the series was withdrawn as metallic coinage returned — kept surviving examples from accumulating significant wear.