500 Francs

The BCEAO was itself only established in 1959, making this one of the earliest issues under the new central banking structure that replaced the Institut d'Émission de l'Afrique Occidentale Française et du Togo. The political timing matters: France's sub-Saharan territories were moving rapidly toward formal independence, and the CFA franc zone was being restructured to maintain monetary alignment with Paris even as colonial administration dissolved. This note was circulating precisely during that transition, used across multiple territories that would become sovereign states within months of its issue.

Tézenas du Montcel served as the BCEAO's first director general — his signature appearing on both date variants anchors this note firmly in the institution's founding years.