CENTRAL AFRICAN STATES

The bank of the central African states ( Banque de etats de l'afrique Central - BEAC) is a central bank that covers a regional area with 6 countries involved. Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. This bank took over from the Equatorial African States Bank in 1973 to give more say to the countries involved. Their Franc was pegged to the French Franc. the control of the Bank passed from Paris to Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon, in 1977 and its first African Governor took over in 1978.

The Franc is now pegged to the Euro and has parity with the similar West African states Franc.

the older currency shared a similar reverse side but sometimes the fronts were of a different design. Later the fronts were the same and a Letter signified the actual country of issue ( above top has F in the top right and bottom left (Central african republic) whereas the bottom one has an E there instead (Cameroon) The dates are found by the signatures and the top is from 1994. the bottom one must be after that as the top signature is listed (le Gouverneur ) but the bottom signiture is not listed (un censeur).

From 1993 onwards the country letters are as follows:

Cameroon                            E
Central African Republic        F
Chad                                   P
Republic of the Congo           C
Equatorial Guinea                  N
Gabon                                  L

Above you can see Two of the 500 franc notes from 2002 (date is on the reverse, middle pic, bottom right) . But has anyone spotted the mistake ??? ...... I'll tell you at the bottom of the post!!

now this is the 1000 Franc from Gabon  again from 2002. have you spotted the mistakes ? well they're not really mistakes they are to confuse the forgers .. and me!! In 2002 they changed the Letters . gabon above went fro L to A and the T was for the Republic of congo !! So in now reads:


Cameroon                            E changes to   U
Central African Republic        F changes to   M
Chad                                   P changes to   C
Republic of the Congo          C changes to   T
Equatorial Guinea                 N changes to   F
Gabon                                 L changes to   A

All the changes came in as of the 2002 issue !!
I've had to change my system around 3 or 4 times as i couldn't get my head around it. once you get it, its actually quite easy !!!