500 Francs CFA Around The World In 80 Days

Jules Verne published Around the World in Eighty Days in 1872 as a serialized novel in Le Temps, timed to coincide with real improvements in global transit — the Suez Canal had opened in 1869, and the First Transcontinental Railroad in 1869 as well. Benin's CFA franc issues of this type are struck under license by the European minting trade, with Benin functioning essentially as an issuing authority on paper while production and distribution run through private numismatic circuits entirely outside domestic circulation.