West Africa 1000 Francs

Description

The West African CFA franc is the official currency of eight states in West Africa: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo. It was established in 1945, replacing the French West African franc. The CFA stands means “Communauté Financière Africaine” (African Financial Community”), and the Central Bank of West African States (BCEAO; Banque Centrale des États de l’Afrique de l’Ouest) is the official issuing institution. The first CFA francs notes issued were in denominations of 5, 10, 25, 50, 100, 500 and 1000 francs in 1946, followed by the 5,000 francs note in 1948. In 1959, The BCEAO started to include an only letter to each state to distinguish the different issues by country: A – Côte d’Ivoire, B – Benin, C – Burkina Faso, H – Niger, K – Senegal, M – Mali, S – Guinea-Bissau and T – Togo. The 50 and 100 francs note were withdrawn, and until 1977 the 10,000 francs note was introduced.

In 2004, a new series of notes were issued in denominations of 1000, 2000, 5000, and 10,000 francs, a coin replaced the 500 francs note, but that denomination was reintroduced again as a banknote in 2012.

The 1000 West African CFA franc note front design features a stylized sawfish, a symbol of fertility and prosperity in African mythologies (a sawfish shaped brass weight is used by the Ashanti Region natives for weighing gold dust (Ghana) and its representative in the West African States), and education scene with a couple of books, a backboard with the first three letters of the alphabet and a planet earth interactive globe, accompanied by a medicine and pharmacy scene with the red cross and the Bowl of Hygieia symbol (bowl with a snake twined around it) which is one of the most ancient and important symbols related to medicine. African geometric patterns and the denomination complete the design. The reverse note side illustrates a couple of camels on an African dessert, African geometric patterns and the denomination. This note is part of the 2003 – 2020 series, and its color is red, brown and multicolor underprint.

Text: Banque Centrale des États de L’afrique de L’ouest, Le Gouverneur, Le Président du Conseil des Ministres, Les Auters, Ou Complices de Falsification Ou de Contrefacon de Billets de Banque Seront Punis Conformément Aux Lois Et Actes en Vigueur, BCEAO, Camelus dromedarius, Mille Francs CFA, 1000, 2003.