Product Description
SCWPM.P812Tc - TBB.B117Tc - Date: (19)94Grade: Unc. - Signature: 27 - Rare banknote
Description: Colour: Purple, brown, yellow, orange, red, blue, and green. Front: French text; hydroelectric dam spillway; head of young woman with plaits and earrings.
Back: French text; penal code; carved standing figurine; two men harvesting cocoa pods with knives; one man spraying cocoa tree.
STRAP windowed security thread. Solid security thread.
Watermark: Head of young woman.
Printer: (Banque de France).- Size: 155 x 80 mm. - Paper.
This denomination was discontinued after only three years due to its unpopularity.
More info:
The Banque Centrale des Etats de l’Afrique de l’Ouest (French: Central Bank of the West African States, BCEAO) was established 4 April 1959 by the government of France to provide a continuing
emissions authority for West African colonies soon to become independent.
The BCEAO succeeded the Institut d’Emission de l’Afrique-Occidentale Française et du Togo which had taken over emissions responsibility from the Banque de l’Afrique Occidentale in 1955.
The Banque de l’Afrique Occidentale had held responsibility for monetary emission in the area since 1903, when it succeeded the Banque du Senegal.
The BCEAO was intended to operate under the umbrella of the French-African Community (Communaute Franco-Africaine) which accompanied the formation of the Fifth French Republic in
1958. Several West African members, however, declined to ratify the community arrangement. Subsequent bilateral and multilateral agreements were negotiated which led in 1962 to the formation of the West African Monetary Union (UMOA). Of necessity, the BCEAO functioned as a de facto emissions authority from 1959 until 1962.
Since 1962 it has operated as a public multilateral entity under the UMOA. Its charter was revised in 1973 to provide greater African control over bank operations. Member countries are Benin, Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo. Mauritania was a member until 1972; Mali left the BCEAO in 1962 but rejoined in 1984. Guinea-Bissau joined in 1997. Guinea, which was part of the original French West Africa colonial grouping, opted out of the economic union from the outset. - For more information, visit www.bceao.int.
