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1 Franc
| Issuer | Gouvernement Général de l'Afrique Occidentale Française - Colonie de la Guinée Française |
|---|---|
| Year | 1917 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Reference(s) | P#2 |
| Obverse description | The note is printed in blue and black on a pale olive-green ground, framed by a decorative guilloche border of repeating foliate motifs. At left and right, circular vignettes reproduce the obverse and reverse of the French 1 Franc coin — the left coin bearing the legend LIBERTÉ ÉGALITÉ FRATERNITÉ around a wreath with the denomination, and the right showing the Semeuse figure of the République Française. The denomination UN FRANC is printed in large bold letterpress type at centre, with the colony's name COLONIE DE LA GUINÉE FRANÇAISE above, beneath the overarching authority line GOUVERNEMENT GÉNÉRAL DE L'AFRIQUE OCCIDENTALE FRANÇAISE; two manuscript signatures appear at lower left and lower right under the printed titles Le Trésorier-Payeur and Le Lt-Gouverneur respectively. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse is printed entirely in black on a light marbled ground, enclosed within a simple decorative border of stylised foliate and arrow motifs. The full text of the extract from the Decree of 11 February 1917 authorising the issue of bons de caisse in French West Africa is set in two columns of justified italic letterpress, flanking a central rectangular cartouche bearing the bold numeral denomination 1f. A bold statement of legal tender validity — Ce bon de caisse a cours forcé dans toute la Colonie — runs across the full width of the note at the foot, above the printer's imprint. |
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| Comments |
French Guinea's 1917 emergency fractional notes were a direct response to the near-total disappearance of small-denomination coinage during the First World War — metal was being absorbed by wartime industry and military procurement across the French empire, leaving colonial markets without functional change. The Gouvernement Général authorized each constituent colony to issue its own papier-monnaie de nécessité, which is why these Guinea notes carry the colony's name separately from the broader AOF authority.
Printed at Gorée — the island off Dakar that served as the administrative and printing hub for much of French West Africa — these are genuinely scarce survivors. Low-denomination emergency issues circulated hard and were rarely preserved.