Catalog
50 Centimes
| Issuer | Gouvernement Général de l'Afrique Occidentale Française (AOF), Colonie du Dahomey |
|---|---|
| Year | 1917 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Printed in black and red on an orange underprint, the face of this emergency wartime bon de caisse carries the denomination at centre flanked by vignettes of both the obverse and reverse of a French 50 centimes coin at left and right respectively. Colonial authority inscriptions appear above and below, with dual signature lines for the Trésorier-Payeur and the Lieutenant-Gouverneur, along with the serial number at lower centre. |
|---|---|
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| Variants | P#1a - watermark: bees P#1b - watermark: laurel leaves |
| Comments |
The AOF emergency fractional notes of 1917 exist because the First World War severed the supply of small coinage to French West Africa entirely. With metropolitan France diverting metal to the war effort, individual colonial administrations were authorized to print their own paper substitutes for coin denominations — an unusual devolution of monetary authority within the federation. Dahomey's issues were printed on Gorée Island, off Dakar, where the Gouvernement Général maintained its colonial press.
These fractional notes circulated alongside identical-format issues from other AOF colonies — Senegal, Guinea, Côte d'Ivoire — distinguished only by the colony name. Survival rates are low; the paper was fragile, the denominations heavily used in daily trade.