Catalog
0,25 Franc
| Issuer | Government of Madagascar and Dependencies |
|---|---|
| Year | 1916 |
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| Composition | Paper |
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| Obverse description | Small-format wartime emergency note of 0,25 Franc dated 1916, with the denomination and issuing authority set in letterpress typography within a plain ruled border; the austere layout is wholly characteristic of necessity currency produced under the economic constraints of the First World War. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse carries a central vignette of a standing hound in profile, executed in fine intaglio line engraving on coarse cream-coloured paper; the restrained, sparse composition with minimal ornamentation is typical of small-denomination emergency circulation notes issued during the First World War period. |
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| Comments |
The wartime small-denomination fractional notes issued by the Government of Madagascar and Dependencies in 1916 were a direct response to a coin shortage that had been building since the outbreak of the First World War. With silver and bronze increasingly diverted to metropolitan France and its war effort, low-value coinage simply stopped arriving on the island in sufficient quantities. Printed cardboard and paper substitutes filled the gap.
The P#4 is one of four fractional denominations in this emergency series. Survivorship varies considerably across the set, with the smaller values having suffered harder circulation wear in the hands of a rural, dispersed population unaccustomed to paper at this scale.