50 Francs

The Banque de l'Afrique Occidentale was the privileged issuing bank for French West Africa, and this series spans one of the more turbulent periods in that arrangement — wartime monetary disruption followed by the postwar reorganization that would eventually strip the BAO of its issuing role entirely by 1959. The 1943 start date reflects the resumption of Free France–aligned currency production after the disruptions of Vichy control over colonial finance.

Robert Armanelli was a prolific engraver at the Banque de France's printing works, where Sébastien Laurent also produced designs for multiple colonial series simultaneously. Magd. Tison's reverse engraving credit appears across several BAO denominations of the period.