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1 Piastre
| Issuer | Banque de l'Indochine |
|---|---|
| Year | 1949-1951 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | 130 × 65 mm |
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| Obverse description | At left, a three-quarter portrait of a young Vietnamese man wearing a traditional conical hat (nón lá), rendered in intaglio with fine engraving detail. The central and right portions carry a rural agricultural vignette of a farmer guiding an ox-drawn plow through a rice field, set against a countryside landscape. The bank title 'BANQUE DE L'INDOCHINE' appears at the top, with the denomination 'UNE PIASTRE' in a panel at the bottom centre flanked by serial numbers. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The central vignette presents two young Southeast Asian women in bust-length portrait against a lush tropical background of foliage and trees. The figure at left wears plainer dress, while the figure at right is dressed in traditional ethnic attire with ornamental earrings. Tropical fruits — including bananas, pineapple, and mangoes — frame the lower corners, and the title inscription appears at the top in Vietnamese, Khmer, and Chinese scripts. |
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| Comments |
The Banque de l'Indochine's late-issue 1 Piastre series appeared at precisely the moment the piastre's value had become politically explosive. In 1946, the French government had fixed the official exchange rate at 17 piastres to the franc — a wildly artificial rate that made the piastre worth far more on paper than in practice, and which fueled a massive currency trafficking racket involving military procurement vouchers, black market operators, and, notoriously, figures connected to the French Expeditionary Corps itself.
The rate was finally abolished in 1953, after this note was already in circulation. Printed by the Banque de France under Barrière's design direction, the note was produced in Paris for a monetary zone that was actively disintegrating around it.