1 Franc

French West Africa's wartime coinage was struck outside France entirely — the 1944 issues were produced in Pretoria, South Africa, as metropolitan French mints were either occupied or inaccessible. The Free French administration needed subsidiary coinage for its African territories and turned to the South African Mint under arrangements coordinated through Allied channels. The nickel brass composition itself reflects wartime material constraints, substituting for the aluminum and cupro-nickel alloys that had become strategically restricted.

Pretoria production for French colonial issues in this period is often underdocumented, and the actual striking dates within 1944 remain imprecise in the primary records.