6000 Francs CFA United Nations

Benin's 1995 commemorative issues were produced under contract by the Monnaie de Paris and distributed almost exclusively through the European numismatic trade — they were never intended for domestic circulation and few ever reached West African soil. The country had adopted the CFA franc through its membership in the West African Economic and Monetary Union, meaning Cotonou had no independent minting infrastructure and no pressing need for high-denomination silver pieces valued at 6,000 francs in a country where per capita income barely exceeded that figure annually.

The UN tie-in places this coin among dozens of similar issues from small francophone states in the 1990s, a period when several nations with nominal monetary authority but no minting capacity licensed their names to European producers for the collector market.