African Currency Cfa

The CFA franc is subdivided into two separate monetary unions, the "West African States" and the "Central African States" (the successors to the two old French colonial divisions of French West Africa and French Equatorial Africa). While the West African and Central African francs are essentially equivalent (they are both pegged at 656 francs to the euro), they are not interchangeable - West African francs are not legal tender in Central Africa, and vice versa.

Coinage of the West African monetary union (Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo) is not, and never has been, differentiated by country - there are no distinguishing marks or "mintmarks" on any of the coins. Most of these countries are often the last to be filled for an OFEC collector, because the only way to obtain a "coin from that country" is to buy an expensive NCLT.

In the Central African monetary union (Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon) things were different and, up to 1996, much more diverse. The 1, 5 and 10 franc coins have no national marks. The 100 franc coins have the name of the country stamped on them in full, and these 100 franc coins are usually listed separately, under the countries of issue.

It's only the 50 and 500 franc coins that are distinguished by letter-codes, which resemble mintmarks. The following codes were used:

A: Chad
B: Central African Republic/Empire
C: Congo-Brazzaville
D: Gabon
E: Cameroon

Equatorial Guinea might have been letter "F" had the system remained in use past 1996, but no coins with this letter were issued. Being the only Spanish-speaking member of the union, an entirely separate coinage for Equatorial Guinea, denominated in "francos", was issued as an interim measure; these coins are filed under "Equatorial Guinea" in the catalogue. No coins issued since 1996 have had any distinguishing letter codes on them at all.