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1 Dollar / 1 Piastre - Saigon
| Issuer | Banque de l'Indo-Chine |
|---|---|
| Year | 1900-1903 |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse is printed entirely in reddish-brown intaglio on plain paper and is dominated by a large central vignette of a sinuous dragon in the East Asian tradition, rendered with fine guilloche-style cross-hatching and surrounded by a decorative border of interlocking fret pattern. Large Chinese characters occupy the central field in two columns, with smaller Chinese text flanking them. The denomination $1 appears in each corner, and the legal warning text from Article 139 of the French Penal Code is set in small letterpress type in two columns flanking the Chinese characters, with the printer's credit DANIEL DUPUIS ET GEORGES DUVAL FEC. along the lower margin. |
| 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 PENAL PUNIT DES TRAVAUX FORCES A PERPE-TUITE CEUX QUI AURONT CONTREFAIT OU FALSIFIE LES BILLETS DE BANQUES AUTORISEES PAR LA LOI, AINSI QUE CEUX QUI AURONT FAIT USAGE DE CES BILLETS CONTREFAITS OU FALSIFIÉS. 富 $1 $1 DANIEL DUPUIS ET GEORGES DUVAL FEC. |
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| Comments |
The Banque de l'Indo-Chine was a private Parisian institution operating under a government concession, not a colonial treasury — a distinction that mattered considerably when disputes arose over note acceptance in the interior. This particular series, denominated in both dollars and piastres to serve the dual commercial vocabularies of Cochinchina and the wider regional trade network, was engraved by Auguste-Hilaire Léveillé, one of the principal engravers at the Imprimerie nationale in Paris, working from designs credited to Duval and the medallist Dupuis.
Dupuis's involvement is the genuinely interesting detail here. Jean-Baptiste-Daniel Dupuis was primarily a sculptor and medal-maker of considerable reputation, and his contributions to banknote design were relatively few — his name on a note is not routine.