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1 Dollar / 1 Piastre - Haïphong

Issuer Banque de l'Indo-Chine
Year 1892-1899
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Reference(s) P#2
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Obverse lettering BANQUE DE L'INDO-CHINE HAÏPHONG DÉCRETS DU 21 JANVIER 1875 ET DU 20 FÉVRIER 1888 EMISSION AUTORISÉE LE 3 AOUT 1891 ONE DOLLAR UNE PIASTRE TO BE PAID ON DEMAND TO BEARER PAYABLE EN ESPÈCES AU PORTEUR UN ADMINISTRATEUR LE DIRECTEUR DANIEL DUPUIS ET GEORGES DUVAL FEC LÉVEILLÉ SC
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Reverse lettering $1 $1 BANQUE DE L'INDO-CHINE 東方滙理銀行 銀壹元正 奉本國特諭 L'ARTICLE 139 DU CODE PÉNAL PUNIT DES TRAVAUX FORCÉS À PERPÉTUITÉ CEUX QUI AURONT CONTREFAIT OU FALSIFIÉ LES BILLETS DE BANQUES AUTORISÉES PAR LA LOI, AINSI QUE CEUX QUI AURONT FAIT USAGE DE CES BILLETS CONTREFAITS OU FALSIFIÉS. $1 $1 DANIEL DUPUIS ET GEORGES DUVAL FEC.
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Comments

The Haïphong payability designation on this note reflects the commercial geography of northern Vietnam in the 1890s — Haïphong was the principal port serving Hanoi and the Tonkin delta trade routes, and the Banque de l'Indochine maintained a separate branch there distinct from its Saigon operations. Notes were issued payable at specific branches rather than as a unified territorial currency, a French colonial banking convention inherited from metropolitan practice.

Dupuis was a medallist of considerable reputation, and Léveillé's engraving work was executed to the exacting standards the Banque de France demanded of its own note production. The piastre/dollar dual denomination acknowledges the note's intended role in trade with neighboring British and treaty-port commerce, where the Mexican dollar remained the dominant unit of account.