500 Francs CFA Gemini

The franc CFA — Coopération Financière en Afrique centrale — has been pegged to the euro at a fixed rate since 1999, and before that to the French franc, a monetary arrangement that dates to 1945 and remains politically contentious in Cameroon and across the fourteen nations still using it. A commemorative silver issue bearing an astronomical theme fits squarely into the modern collector program that the Monnaie de Paris has administered on behalf of the BEAC for decades.

Gemini is one of several zodiac-themed strikes in this ongoing series.