500 Francs CFA Table Tennis Racket

The Bank of Central African States issues collector pieces like this under licensing arrangements that have little to do with the six member nations' domestic monetary policy. These coins are produced almost exclusively for the international novelty collector market — they do not circulate in Cameroon, Chad, or anywhere else in the CEMAC zone.

The shaped-coin format, here mimicking a table tennis racket, comes from a Czech minting tradition popularized by the Pobjoy Mint and later adopted by several European contractors now supplying Pacific and African issuing authorities with themed numismatic products. The actual striking is almost certainly European.