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1 Franc
| Issuer | Banque de la Guyane |
|---|---|
| Year | 1917 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Paper |
| Size | Log in to see details |
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| Printer | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Printed in blue and gray, the obverse centers on the monogram of the Banque de la Guyane within a guilloche vignette, with the numeral '1' repeated in each corner as denomination indicators. The design incorporates two signature varieties. Inscriptions identify the issuing bank, denomination, and date. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | 1 RF 1 |
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| Comments |
The Banque de la Guyane's small-denomination emergency notes of this period owe their existence to the chronic coin shortage that plagued French Guiana during and after the First World War. Metallic currency drained away toward the metropole, and the colony's bank was forced to issue low-value paper to fill the gap — an arrangement that would have been unthinkable under normal peacetime supply conditions.
B. Arnaud of Villeurbanne, a Lyon-area firm better known for commercial printing than banknote work, handled the entire production. The choice of a regional printer rather than a specialist security press like Chaix or Banque de France's own workshops reflects how improvised the issue was.