500 Francs

The BCEAO was formally established in 1959 as the successor monetary authority to the Institut d'Émission de l'Afrique Occidentale Française et du Togo, and this 500 Francs series spans the precise moment when eight newly independent states were attempting to maintain a shared currency while asserting individual sovereignty through their own finance ministry signatories. The left-hand signature changed repeatedly as individual member states rotated representation — Henri Konan Bédié signed for Côte d'Ivoire, Tiémoko Marc Garango for Burkina Faso (then Haute-Volta), Edem Kodjo for Togo. Robert Julienne's persistence as the constant right-hand signatory throughout most of the run reflects the French technical assistance agreements that underwrote the zone's early administration.

Pick 602H is the final suffix in a long coding sequence for this type, distinguished by the Abdoulaye Fadiga pairing — Fadiga would later serve as BCEAO Governor from 1975 to 1988.