West African States: identifying the plants on coins

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The designs on the coins of the West African States include various plants.

Not all of them are identified in the standard coin references, however.

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West African States, 500 francs, 2004.

Top: peanuts / groundnuts.

Bottom: cocoa pods.

Left: coffee plant.

Right: cotton plant.


Is that correct? I am not certain of the cotton plant.

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West African States, 1000 francs, 2004.

What is the name of the plant that I have outlined in the middle of the design?

Palm leaves are shown at the bottom.

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West African States, 50  francs, 2012.

What kind of leaves are shown at the left and right? I have labelled them "1".

What is the name of the plant that I have labelled "2"?

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West African States, 200 francs, 2004.



Left: sesame pod.

Right: bananas? The shape doesn't look quite right.

Top: ?

Bottom: ?

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West African States, 100  francs, 1967.

Who knows what these flowers are?

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West African States, 500 francs, 2004.


Top: peanuts / groundnuts.
Bottom: cocoa pods.
Left: coffee plant.
Right: cotton plant. Is that correct? I am not certain of the cotton plant.

Answer: From Rita Purdy, wife of former member Martin Purdy:

It looks like a side on view of the cotton balls to me and the central bank of west Africa site below confirms cotton.

bceao.int/en/content/cfa-f-5000-and-1000-banknotes states:

The CFA F 500 and CFA F 200 coins that were put into circulation on December 24, 2003, are bicolour and can be described as follows : On the back, the designs on the CFA F 500 coin represent the main export crops of the WAEMU Zone (groundnuts, cocoa, coffee and cotton) and those on the CFA F 200 coin represent the main food crops (millet, maize, bananas and rice).

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West African States, 200 francs, 2004.


Answer: From Rita Purdy, wife of former member Martin Purdy:

Left: This looks like maize to me.

Right: Bananas

Top: This looks like rice.

Bottom: This looks like millet.

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West African States, 1000 francs, 2004.

What is the name of the plant that I have outlined in the middle of the design?

Rita Purdy's answer: Millet.


What kind of leaves are shown at the bottom, left and right?

Rita Purdy's answer: I don't know.

Does anybody know?

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West African States, 50  francs, 2012.


What kind of leaves are shown at the left and right? I have labelled them "1".

What is the name of the plant that I have labelled "2"?

Rita Purdy's answers:

This is the same design as the 50 francs from 1972.

I looked at Barrie and Jenkins World Coin Catalogue Twentieth Century by Gunter Schon, page 1069.

It lists the plants as rice, millet, groundnuts, cocoa and coffee.

Hence the leaves at no. 1 are rice and at no. 2 is millet.

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West African States, 100  francs, 1967.


Who knows what these flowers are?

Rita Purdy answers:

The stylised flowers are undescribed in the above catalogue.

One could be an orchid, but overall they're too stylised to identify for sure.