1 Franc

Madagascar's Gouvernement Général issued these small-denomination franc notes in 1920 to address a chronic coin shortage that had plagued the island since the First World War disrupted metal supplies to French colonial territories. The notes were essentially a local emergency measure — metropolitan France had its own coin shortages to manage, and the colonies were largely left to improvise.

Pick 1C is part of a series that also includes 50 centimes and 2 franc values. Survival rates are low; these circulated hard in a cash-hungry economy and the paper held up poorly in Madagascar's humid climate.