Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
1 Franc
| Issuer | Banque de la Martinique |
|---|---|
| Year | 1870-1879 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Cheque-format note printed in rose-red, with a central letterpress text panel carrying the bold denomination indicator "B.P.F. 1" above a five-line receipt text in French; ornate guilloche borders frame the panel, with tropical vignettes — vegetation and figures — occupying the left and right margins. The place of issue reads "SAINT-PIERRE, le 187_" at the foot of the text field, with ruled spaces left blank for manuscript completion of the account holder's name and date. A serial number line appears below the issue line. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse carries a pale ghost impression of the obverse design, printed in light ink as a security underprint rather than a distinct compositional design; the guilloche border and tropical vignettes at the margins remain discernible, and the central text panel is legible in mirror image. No additional design elements or independent inscriptions are present on this side. |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
The Banque de la Martinique was established in 1853 as one of the colonial banks created under Napoleon III's reorganization of French overseas financial institutions. This 1 Franc note, printed by the Banque de France in Paris, reflects a period when the island's monetary supply was tightly controlled from the metropole — local institutions issued the paper but held little independent authority over monetary policy.
Small-denomination colonial notes from this period survive in poor numbers. Martinique's tropical climate was brutal on circulating paper, and redemption drives in the 1880s pulled most survivors out of use.