World coins chat: Equatorial Guinea

Equatorial Guinea is a country in central Africa with a mainland part between Cameroon and Gabon and the two islands of Bioko and Annobón, of which Bioko is the larger one. The capital Malabo is located on Bioko, but a new capital is planned on the mainland part.

The Spanish took control of this region after the Treaty of Pardo in 1778 with the Portuguese. The Spanish claim stretched from the Niger to the Ubangi rivers, but never materialised this claim and the result is that Spanish Guinea was less than 10% of the size than originally intended. Independence was granted in 1968, after which the country quickly aligned itself with the socialist countries and distanced itself from Spain and the West. Cocoa was the main export product until oil discoveries in 1995, after which Equatorial Guinea became a US ally and one of the most prosperous sub-Saharan nations. However, only a few people profit and the population is mostly very poor. President Obiang's net wealth is estimated at 600 million USD, or 4% of the country's GDP.

Equatorial Guinea used Spanish Pesetas until introducing the Peseta Guineana at par in 1969. In 1975 this currency was renamed to Ekuele and in 1980 to Ekwele (plural: Bipkwele). In 1985 Equatorial Guinea joined the Central African States Monetary Union and replaced the Ekwele with the CFA at a rate of 4 Ekwele. In 1968 this rate was still 4 CFA per Peseta so the Ekwele lost a lot of value in those 17 years. The Equatorial Guinean CFA coins are equal to the Central African ones but have legends in Spanish.

Equatorial Guinean coins come in 4 series:

- Peseta Guineana (1969)
- Ekuele (1975)
- Ekwele (1980-1)
- CFA Francos (1985-6)

All of these are somewhat rare, but the Ekwele coins are the most difficult to find.

https://en.numista.com/catalogue/guinee_equatoriale-1.html

You can add the BEAC section to this topic, as similar with coins in French and as the new series not found in Spanish yet.

Always found that country interesting and want to get some of the pre CFA coins. What is funny is a bunch of mates of mine and most of us away from Africa, thought the currency was called Ukuleles.

 

They also issued HEAPS of tacky wallpaper stamps in the 1970s through some dodgy agent and these stamps became the bane of collectors back then, known as wallpaper stamps. It stopped with the overthrow of Francisco Macias in 1979. The stamps were laughably badly designed and were competing with the sand dunes of the UAE. There were thematic topics like cats, dogs, fish etc and many stamps for Olympics, expos, American Independence, UPU conferences, christmas etc.

 

They issued 16 stamp wallpaper sheetlets that had 12 stamps denominated from 0.05 to 0.60 Ekuele (With a 5 Ekuelets rise per stamp) and the last 4 stamps were like 1, 2, 10 Ekueles and 1 stupidly high value like 45 or 65 Ekuele.

chomp-masterYou can add the BEAC section to this topic, as similar with coins in French and as the new series not found in Spanish yet.

 

The new type Central African States coins are inscribed in several languages, including English & Spanish.

 

Aidan.