5000 Francs CFA General Gnassingbe Eyadema, Reverse Trial Strike

Trial strikes for BCEAO issues were produced in multiple metals — copper, aluminum, and silver among them — as part of the formal approval process before a design entered circulation. This copper reverse trial is the working documentation of that process, struck to evaluate die quality and relief before the final alloy was committed. Eyadéma, who seized power in Togo in 1967 after assassinating President Sylvanus Olympio's successor Nicolas Grunitzky in a bloodless coup, was one of the first African heads of state to have his portrait placed on a regional BCEAO coin — a notable exception to the institution's usual practice of avoiding political portraiture on circulating currency.