500 Francs CFA Pope Paul VI

Benin's franc CFA coinage since the mid-1990s has been almost entirely commemorative silver and bimetallic issues produced for the collector market, with no meaningful circulation intended. The country's actual transactional currency is managed through the BCEAO — the regional central bank serving the West African Economic and Monetary Union — leaving individual member states like Benin to issue legal-tender commemoratives essentially as a revenue mechanism.

Paul VI reigned from 1963 until his death in 1978 and was beatified by Francis in 2014 — the same year this piece was struck — before his canonization in 2018.