40 Francs Pattern

The Banque d'Émission de l'Afrique Centrale was itself a transitional institution, created in 1955 to manage currency across French Equatorial Africa as the colonial framework began its slow unraveling. By 1958 — the year de Gaulle's new constitution reshaped French overseas territories into the Community — a 40-franc denomination made little practical sense, and this pattern was never adopted. The CFA franc system that followed rendered the entire Banque d'Émission apparatus obsolete within a few years.

Lec#25 is the standard reference for this piece among pattern collectors working the French colonial series.