50 Francs CFA Elephant

Burkina Faso issues coinage through the Banque Centrale des États de l'Afrique de l'Ouest, the regional central bank governing the eight-nation West African Economic and Monetary Union. The franc CFA itself was pegged to the French franc at a fixed rate from 1948 until 1994, when France devalued it by 50% in a single overnight decision — the most disruptive monetary event in francophone West Africa in the postwar period. Coins circulate across all BCEAO member states regardless of which country's name appears on the face.