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 Piastre
| Issuer | Banque de l'Indochine |
|---|---|
| Year | 1945-1951 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 1 Piastre (1 ICFP) |
| 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 | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | BANQUE DE L'INDOCHINE Art. 139 du code pénal. UNE PIASTRE AMERICAN BANK NOTE COMPANY |
| Reverse description | Central vignette of Angkor Wat temple complex reflected in the surrounding moat, rendered in a fine intaglio landscape style. Chinese and Khmer script denominations appear at left within a ruled panel, flanked by guilloche corner ornaments. The printer's imprint appears at the lower margin. |
| 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 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.