500 Francs Guinéens Oiseaux Dancers, Obverse Trial

Guinea's 1969 commemorative series was produced under the government of Sékou Touré, who had broken from the French franc zone entirely in 1960 after refusing to join the Communauté française — the only West African leader to do so. The resulting Guinean franc, and later the franc guinéen, required Guinea to develop its own numismatic program from scratch, largely through contracts with foreign minting houses.

Trial pieces from this series, designated TS in the KM numbering, are obverse-only strikes on full planchets used to evaluate die quality and metal flow before authorizing production runs. Surviving examples are exceptionally few.