50 Centimes

The Afrique Occidentale Française 50 Centimes of 1944 belongs to a low-denomination emergency issue produced after the AOF administration aligned with the Free French following the Allied landings in North Africa. Small-change notes of this type filled a genuine gap — metal coinage had largely dried up across French West Africa during the war years, with base metals diverted to the war effort and supply chains from metropolitan France severed.

Pick 33 is among the smallest-format issues of the entire AOF series, and surviving examples frequently show heavy handling wear, consistent with genuine everyday use rather than hoarding.