500 Francs Lucas Cranach - The Unequal Couple

Lucas Cranach the Elder painted several versions of "The Unequal Couple" — old man, young woman, money changing hands — as pointed moral satire of mercenary marriage in Reformation-era Germany. Cranach was court painter to the Electors of Saxony and a close friend of Martin Luther, whose portrait he produced repeatedly. The paintings circulated as warnings; the coins reproducing them centuries later are a different transaction entirely.

Cameroon has issued prolifically under this numismatic program, licensing European fine art onto legal tender with no particular connection to Cameroonian history. The coins are collector issues in every meaningful sense, never intended for circulation.