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1 Piastre Countermark cancellation perforations
| Issuer | French Indochina |
|---|---|
| Year | 1931 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | 2.7 mm |
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| Obverse description | Laureate and draped effigy of Marianne facing left, her hair bound with a laurel wreath and adorned with an olive branch. The legend REPUBLIQUE FRANÇAISE runs along the outer border in raised Latin letters, with the engraver's signature E.LINDAUER visible in the lower field. The coin has been subjected to a cancellation pattern of perforations — comprising two square cutouts, two half-circular cutouts, and one circular cutout — arranged symmetrically across the flan. A beaded inner border frames the design. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
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| Mintage | 1931 - Essai; Lec-306.12.; with fineness annotation - 1931 - Essai; Lec-306.17.; without fineness annotation - 1931 - Essai; Lec-306.18.; with '42' countermark - 1931 - Essai; Lec-306.19.; with '9' countermark - |
| Additional information |
By the early 1930s, French Indochina's piastre was hemorrhaging out of the colony through arbitrage — traders exploiting the gap between the coin's silver bullion value and its face value in local exchange. The colonial administration's response was to cancel circulating stocks with perforation countermarks, rendering the coins legally demonetized while leaving the silver itself intact. It was a bureaucratic solution to a speculative problem.
The multiple Lecompte reference numbers reflect genuine variation in the perforation patterns applied, likely across different administrative districts or cancellation batches rather than a single standardized operation.