500 Francs Goldfish

The Bank of Central African States issues currency on behalf of six member nations — Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, and Gabon — all bound to the CFA franc, a currency whose fixed peg to the euro traces back to a 1948 agreement with France that survived decolonization largely intact. This piece is a collector issue, not a circulating denomination; the BEAC has increasingly used such numismatic releases to generate foreign exchange revenue, a quiet but significant income stream for member states with limited export diversification.

The gold-plated insert technique was popularized by the Mint of Poland, which has produced a substantial portion of the world's novelty bimetallic collector coins since the 2010s — including many issued under African monetary authorities.