Talk:CFA franc

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The introduction of the 'new Franc' is not a reevaluation of the Franc but a accounting reform. Money change name, not value. -- Ann O'nyme

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[edit] more info please

I'm trying to understand the CFA franc, and I'm a bit confused. The info I have from The Standard Catalog of World Coins does not seem to match what's here. I've been looking around the web and can't find the answers. Specifically:

  • French Equatorial Africa has franc coins from 1942. If the CFA franc started in 1945, is the FEA franc the same thing as the Central African CFA franc?
  • French West Africa has franc coins from 1944. If the CFA franc started in 1945, is the FWA franc the same thing as the West African CFA franc?
  • Madagascar has coins from 1943-1958. The Malagasy Republic has coins from 1965. This page says that Madagascar left the CFA zone in 1972 or 1973. But when did it join? The Malagasy franc page mentions the Madagascar-Comoros CFA franc which is not mentioned on this page.
  • The discussion of the fact that there are two different CFA francs seems to imply that before the countries were independent, there was only one CFA franc (since after independence, they were differentiated by what CFA stood for in French, but before independence, CFA only had one meaning). From the coins though, it seems like there were two from the beginning.

Ingrid 03:28, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

Ingrid:

I added the following external link to the main page. It contains the most detailed information regarding the CFA's history that I have been able to find online. I have had to deal some with the CFA in my work, but I'm not terribly knowledgable about its history. To the best of my knowledge, I believe the Global Financial Data article to be accurate. I do know that it is accurate about the original six parts of the CFA franc. Only two now remain. So the history of the CFA franc here on Wikipedia is far from complete. I've tried in my apare time to research the history more. I'm still working on it. Initially all the colonial francs were managed in Paris by the French government. Over time, some parts of the French Empire were converted to Metropolitan francs, and the other parts were given more autonomy. Eventually, the organizations and central banks were more to Africa. Initially, the differences between the six CFA francs were nominal, because they were managed together in Paris.

You put a note on the Malagasy franc page. To the best of my knowledge, the Malagasy franc was initially the Malgasy CFA franc. It was sometimes called the Malagasy-Comoros franc because the Comoros was split off from Madagascar, but continued to use Malagasy money. I have also seen the term Djibouti CFA franc and I'm sure that other French territories like Saint-Pierre and Miquelon used the CFA franc. See the note on the left side of this page.

When I'm sure of the history, I'll add more. As a start, if someone wants to summarize the information on the www.globalfinancialdata.com website that would help. It is the best source of information I have found on the history of African currencies, but my knowledge of the matter is limited and so, I cannot judge its accuracy. SDC 07:05, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

Thank you! I use www.globalfinancialdata.com all the time for reference, but didn't realize that they had a page devoted to the CFA franc. That answers a lot of my questions. I'll try to incorporate the information into the CFA franc page as I have time. Ingrid 16:02, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] confused by first sentence

I don't think I understand the parenthetical note in the opening sentence. 'The CFA franc (in French: franc CFA, or just franc in everyday conversation if no ambiguity is possible)...' - isn't the singular word 'franc' actually more ambiguous than a term like 'franc CFA'? It seems like the correct phrase would be something along the lines of '...just franc in everyday conversation if ambiguity is permissible...'? Probably not quite the correct phrasing either - I'm having trouble understanding what the note about ambiguity is meant to say. Nice article. Mathtinder 19:40, 30 April 2006 (UTC)

What it means is that, for example, if you're in the CFA franc zone, and you want to know how muh something costs, you'd use 'franc'. Everyone would know that you meant CFA franc, and thus no ambiguity is possible (meaning there's no confusion about which franc you're talking about). Does that help? Ingrid 20:04, 2 May 2006 (UTC)
Oh, I see. Thanks for the clarification. Just a suggestion, but for me, 'no amibiguity is possible' suggests a situation in which ambiguity is literally impossible, whereas the article seems to be describing a situation in which a misunderstanding between the speaker/writer and the listener/reader is unlikely (because ambiguity has been minimized). Would it be correct to say something like '...(or, within the CFA zone, simply franc)...'? Or '...(or simply franc when already speaking in context of the CFA zone)...'? Cheers! Mathtinder 02:31, 3 May 2006 (UTC)
I've changed it to "if the context is clear", that should be unambiguous. =] —Nightstallion (?) Seen this already? 11:28, 4 May 2006 (UTC)
Ace, Nightstallion! That's much more immediately understandable, at least for me.  :) And I'll just say again that the original article was very helpful as well. Mathtinder 07:36, 5 May 2006 (UTC)

While we're all here – was it you, Ingrid, who had plans to split the article and research the CFA franc's convoluted history en detail, or was it someone else? —Nightstallion (?) Seen this already? 00:02, 6 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Francs anciens/noveaux

"100 CFA francs = 1 former French franc = 0.152449 euro"

To me this suggests that 100 CFA francs = 1 franc ancien (i.e., pre-1960 franc), but the exchange rate to the euro suggests that it is instead 1 franc noveau (i.e., post-1960 franc). Something needs to be made more clear here. (Stefan2 03:43, 19 June 2006 (UTC))

I have modified the wording to "100 CFA francs = 1 French (nouveau) franc = 0.152449 euro". I hope that this clarifies the statement.

Blair 2006-July-27

[edit] Split

[edit] Support

  • This page needs to be split. Any questions? – Zntrip 05:21, 17 August 2006 (UTC)
  • Support And the split is a delicate work. It must be done with the most care, with coordinated effort. --Chochopk 07:31, 17 August 2006 (UTC)
  • Support A preliminary split to West African CFA franc and Central African CFA franc would be a good start (and perhaps all that is necessary, but I think it will require more -- I'll try to do some more work figuring it out and help with the split). Ingrid 14:06, 17 August 2006 (UTC)
  • Support They have separate institutions. They have separate coins and banknotes. They cannot be used in each other's zone, even though their value is the same. They are effectively separate currencies. Alr 00:06, 18 August 2006 (UTC)
  • Comment. Before splitting, I think we should really work on the history of the currencies. The two currencies weren't always so separate. And they share so much in common that it would be efficient to have a shared article and then subarticles for the two separate currencies. For example:
    • Initially there were more than two CFA francs. The Malagasy franc was initially part of the arrangement, but separate from the current two zones. Also, Djibouti had its own CFA franc.
    • The two were created with the same treaty, and initially shared some bureaucratic structures. The arrangements with the French treasury are the same.
    • When the European monetary union was being considered, the two CFA francs (and the Comorian franc) were treated as a single issue.
So my conclusion is that I don't support splitting this article, so much as putting parts of it into sub-articles, because CFA is bigger than the two. And more importantly, I think we need to focus more on the overall history of the CFA franc as well as the legal agreements between the African countries and France. SDC 23:41, 18 August 2006 (UTC)
What about having a CFA franc article for the common stuff, and have a "West African CFA franc" and a "Central African CFA franc" for their specific info? I never want CFA franc to be just a disambig page. --Chochopk 06:37, 19 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Oppose

Someone has too, maybe just 2 new articles for the newer currencies and this page for the older historical currency. Enlil Ninlil 06:22, 4 September 2006 (UTC)

But every currency has an article on Wikipedia, why should this be different? – Zntrip 16:12, 4 September 2006 (UTC)
The 2 different currencies evolved from the one currency, French Africa, so a split would be when they issued there own seperate coins and banknotes, which was not likely in the 40's and 50's. Enlil Ninlil 22:31, 4 September 2006 (UTC)
There will still be a CFA franc article, there will be three articles. – Zntrip 22:45, 4 September 2006 (UTC)
So this one would end up in modern obsolete currency and the other 2 in circulating currency category! That is what I meant, so confused always. Enlil Ninlil 05:23, 5 September 2006 (UTC)
There's nothing wrong with that. It is, after all, the accurate representation. And the article "CFA franc" wouldn't be so unorganized like it is now. --ChoChoPK (球球PK) (talk | contrib) 06:55, 5 September 2006 (UTC)


Ok I will just start the new articles and leave this on with the current information. Enlil Ninlil 00:23, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] XOF francs picture

I have made picture of XOF money, don't really now if xof is copyrighted, guess so. If the moderator thinks it's safe to put it on the page, then do so. file name is Image:XOF.JPG cheers, —Preceding unsigned comment added by KVDP (talk • contribs) 11:39, 10 October 2006

[edit] great resource

http://www.beac.int/emission/brochure30.pdf in French tho. --ChoChoPK (球球PK) (talk | contrib) 12:39, 12 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Seperation

Ok the srticles have been seperated now, the original for the combined history and two for the seperate currencies. They could do with a thorough clean up though. Enlil Ninlil 02:53, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

Question, when was a common CFA franc replaced by two distinct currencies? --ChoChoPK (球球PK) (talk | contrib) 02:22, 7 February 2007 (UTC)

As far as I know: Never, they have always been distinct. But they have a common history, so a general page about both francs doesn't seem wrong to me. (Stefan2 18:30, 30 May 2007 (UTC))

I think it might have been between 1950 and 1960 but not sure. Enlil Ninlil 05:15, 31 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The GDP additions

The GDP additions in the middle are simply WRONG Cameroon on its own has a GDP of $43 Billion!! —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.68.136.24 (talk) 12:51, 29 March 2007 (UTC).

Thank you for pointing that out. I removed the info, since a more detail and more accurate version is available at West African CFA franc and Central African CFA franc. --ChoChoPK (球球PK) (talk | contrib) 13:16, 31 March 2007 (UTC)