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What circulates in the West African States monetary union?

Started by Bimat, January 14, 2009, 06:03:10 PM

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Bimat

Hi Aidan,
Benin is a part of West African states-but still it has its separate coin issues.Can these two different coin issues(one by West African states and one by Benin) be used simultaneously there?
Aditya.
It is our choices...that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities. -J. K. Rowling.

BC Numismatics

Quote from: numismatica on January 14, 2009, 06:03:10 PM
Hi Aidan,
Benin is a part of West African states-but still it has its separate coin issues.Can these two different coin issues(one by West African states and one by Benin) be used simultaneously there?
Aditya.

Aditya,
  It is indeed possible to use West African States Francs in Benin.In fact,all of these countries have issued their own coins as well.The same thing also applies to the Central African States as well.

Aidan.

Afrasi

Quote from: BC Numismatics on January 14, 2009, 06:10:42 PM
Aditya, It is indeed possible to use West African States Francs in Benin.In fact,all of these countries have issued their own coins as well.The same thing also applies to the Central African States as well.
Aidan.

You can pay ONLY with the Franc CFA in Benin! There are NO other coins circulating!!! It will be much easier to pay with Euros, US$ or GBP than with their "local" medal coins.

Afrasi

chrisild

Quote from: Afrasi on January 17, 2009, 10:53:46 PM
You can pay ONLY with the Franc CFA in Benin!

Right, but Aidan is not wrong either. Here are the FCFA coins that can be used in all countries of the West African Monetary Union: http://www.bceao.int/fr/muse/musepc.htm  In addition to those, the individual countries issue FCFA coins (basically collector pieces) as well. I suppose it is similar to what we have in Euroland - the "real" money can be used anywhere in the currency union, the collector coins are strictly national issues.

Christian

BC Numismatics

Quote from: Afrasi on January 17, 2009, 10:53:46 PM
You can pay ONLY with the Franc CFA in Benin! There are NO other coins circulating!!! It will be much easier to pay with Euros, US$ or GBP than with their "local" medal coins.

Afrasi

Alexander,
  The 100 Francs was struck for both the individual country & for the West African States.A similar thing has also occurred with the individual countries that use the Central African States C.F.A. Francs.The Central African Empire issued its only circulating coin - the 1978 (a) 100 Francs,which is a pretty scarce coin.

Aidan.

africancoins

The 100 Franc coins (1970s/1980s) for individual countries was only for CENTRAL African States members and not those of the WEST African States. No Benin, Niger, Togo - but plenty.....  Cameroun, Chad, Gabon etc...

Thanks Mr Paul Baker

Bimat

One more doubt:Why the 200 FCFA and 500 FCFA coins don't have the denomination 200 Francs and 500 Francs? (why specifically FCFA?)Is it because these are issued specifically by Benin(though all west African states coins are minted at Paris)?I was told so by one of my friend.

Aditya
It is our choices...that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities. -J. K. Rowling.

africancoins

"Francs" is not the full name.

"FCFA" for "Francs-CFA" or in full "Franc de la Communauté Financière d'Afrique" and that is the proper/official name for the currency and it is what appears on the more recent circulation coin types for West African States.

See my two pages starting at...

http://www.wbcc.fsnet.co.uk/af-was.htm

Thanks Mr Paul Baker

Bimat

Quote from: africancoins on January 19, 2009, 09:39:19 PM
"Francs" is not the full name.

"FCFA" for "Francs-CFA" or in full "Franc de la Communauté Financière d'Afrique" and that is the proper/official name for the currency and it is what appears on the more recent circulation coin types for West African States.
Hi Paul
Thanks for the information!
Aditya.
It is our choices...that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities. -J. K. Rowling.

BC Numismatics

Aditya,
  The C.F.A. Franc is the descendant currency of the French West African Franc.Prior to 2002,the C.F.A. Franc was pegged to the French Franc.Since then,it has been pegged to the Euro.

Aidan.

Bimat

#10
Hi,
I came across following confusing statement in the catalog in the Senegal section :
Senegal is a member of a monetary union of autonomous republics called the Monetary Union of West African States (Union Monetaire Ouest-Africaine). The other members are Ivory Coast, Benin, Burkina Faso (Upper Volta), Niger, Mauritania and Togo. Mali was a member, but seceded in1962. Some of the member countries have issued coinage in addition to the common currency issued by the Monetary Union of West African States.
And Mauritania has its own issues which are in circulation.That means there are two currencies in circulation and we can use either of them,Isn't it?

Aditya


It is our choices...that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities. -J. K. Rowling.

BC Numismatics

Mauritania seceded from the West African States currency union in 1973,& now uses its own currency called the Ougiya,which is a non-decimal currency divided into 5 Khoums.

Aidan.

chrisild

Seems those khoums were only used initially, on one "1/5" coin dated 1973. Due to the currency change back then, 5 FCFA became 1 ouguiya, ie. 1 FCA = 1 khoum. Since that year, Mauritania has (AFAIK) had ouguiya coins only, minted in Paris, FR and Kremnica, SK ...

Christian

africancoins

I think I heard it somewhere that "Khoum" is a word meaning fifth - a bit like centimes are hundreths because centimes is a word for hundreth....

Thanks Mr Paul Baker

Harald

In fact, the khoums-story is a wide spread misunderstanding...

The ouguiya was a currency without sub-units (like the Franc CFA never had a Centime CFA). The word "khoums" (with "s") simply means 1/5. This denomination was necessary as the ouguiya was introduced at a ratio of 1 : 5, so the 1/5 replaced the old franc coin.

A similiar misunderstanding has occured in Madagascar. Here again the ariary does not have any sub-unit. The old franc coin is now exclusively called iraimbilanja, which is a loan word from the old Malagasy currency of the 19th century. But iraimbilanja is a coin name (for 1/5 ariary), no currency unit.

cheers
--
Harald
http://www.liganda.ch (monetary history & numismatic linguistics)