1 Franc

Madagascar's wartime small-denomination notes of 1916 were emergency issues prompted by a severe coin shortage — the same disruption that drove dozens of French colonial administrations to paper fractional currency during the First World War. Metropolitan France needed its coinage; the colonies improvised. The Government of Madagascar and Dependencies stepped in as issuer rather than the Banque de Madagascar, which did not yet exist in its later form.

P#11B is distinguished from the closely related 11A by serial number or signature variety — a distinction that matters more to specialists than the difference in face value suggests.