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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;John Conduitt, post: 7755471, member: 109923&quot;]I have the Togo 1 Franc, which is the same design as the 2 Franc but half the weight.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Togo, Territories under the mandate of France, 1924</b></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1328544[/ATTACH]</p><p><b>Paris. Aluminium-Bronze, 22mm, 5g (KM 2).</b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p>I also have a few West African CFA Francs, taken from circulation in Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Togo and Benin 15-20 years ago.</p><p><br /></p><p>As far as I can work out, Burkina Faso, Benin/Dahomey and Ivory Coast are three of very few countries in the world that have never had any coins issued for circulation with their name on them, or any countermark or other indication that they were for that country. There are non-circulating commemoratives for all of them.</p><p><br /></p><p>I think the confusion around the &#039;fish&#039; comes from it being a brass weight (for weighing gold) that&#039;s in the shape of a sawfish. So it&#039;s both a fish and a weight. There&#039;s a tradition in West Africa for making brass weights in the shape of flora, fauna and adinkra symbols <a href="https://www.dia.org/art/collection/object/sawfish-gold-weight-106396" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.dia.org/art/collection/object/sawfish-gold-weight-106396" rel="nofollow">https://www.dia.org/art/collection/object/sawfish-gold-weight-106396</a>.</p><p><br /></p><p>The design of the CFA hasn&#039;t changed much (at all) since, although they&#039;re proposing a new currency (the Eco) to give West and Central African countries financial independence from France.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>5 CFA Francs, 1997</b></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1328577[/ATTACH]</p><p><b>Paris. Aluminium-bronze, 20mm, 3g (KM 2a).</b></p><p><br /></p><p><b>10 CFA Francs, 2002</b></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1328570[/ATTACH]</p><p><b>Paris. Aluminium-bronze, 23.5mm, 4g (KM 10).</b> FAO commemorative issue: two women and a child pumping water. The Food and Agriculture Organization is the part of the United Nations tasked with improving nutrition and food security.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>25 CFA Francs, 1997</b></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1328572[/ATTACH]</p><p><b>Paris. Aluminium-bronze, 27mm, 8g (KM 9).</b> FAO commemorative issue: laboratory assistant pouring liquid into a test tube.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>50 CFA Francs, 2002</b></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1328582[/ATTACH]</p><p><b>Paris. Copper-nickel, 22mm, 5g (KM 6).</b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b><b>100 CFA Francs, 2004</b></b></p><p><b>[ATTACH=full]1328585[/ATTACH] </b></p><p><b><b>Paris. Nickel, 26mm, 7g (KM 4).</b></b>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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