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1 Piastre

Issuer Banque de l'Indochine
Year 1945-1951
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Reference(s) P#76
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Obverse lettering BANQUE DE L'INDOCHINE Art. 139 du code pénal. UNE PIASTRE AMERICAN BANK NOTE COMPANY
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Reverse lettering GIẤY MỘT ĐỒNG VÀNG AMERICAN BANK NOTE COMPANY
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Comments

The Banque de l'Indochine's postwar 1 Piastre series was a direct consequence of the Japanese occupation severing French access to its usual printing sources. The American Bank Note Company in New York produced these notes at a time when France had lost practical administrative control over much of Indochina — meaning currency was being printed in New York for a territory that the issuing authority could barely claim to govern.

The date range spans the early years of the First Indochina War. Notes issued toward the end of this run were circulating in an economy already fracturing under Viet Minh pressure and the structural collapse of the piastre's artificially inflated exchange rate against the French franc.