Catalog
10 Centimes
| Issuer | Afrique Occidentale Française - Côte d'Ivoire |
|---|---|
| Year | 1920 |
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| Currency | Franc (1915-1925) |
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| Obverse description | A Côte d'Ivoire colonial postage stamp in orange and pink tones, mounted on plain cardboard with perforated edges, bearing a central vignette of a river scene with a pirogue carrying figures; lateral panels carry African idol motifs, while the colonial inscription 'AFRIQUE OCCIDENTALE FRANÇAISE' surmounts 'CÔTE D'IVOIRE' at the head of the design. The stamp is attributed to designer E. Froment and engraver J. de La Nézière. A bold black letterpress overprint reading 'Valeur d'échange' and '0 fr. 10' is applied across the stamp face to establish its emergency exchange value. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Plain unprinted cardboard reverse, otherwise unadorned and consistent with the emergency stamp-money format, showing a faint mirror-image bleed-through of the black letterpress overprint from the obverse, rendering 'Valeur d'échange' and '0 fr. 10' in reverse as a consequence of the impression pressure. |
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| Comments |
This is a timbre-monnaie — a postage stamp mounted on cardboard and pressed into service as fractional currency. France's West African territories faced a chronic shortage of small-denomination coin during and after the First World War, and the colonial administration improvised by backing existing postage stamps with cardboard discs, essentially demonetizing the stamp's postal function and redeploying it as coin substitute. The Côte d'Ivoire issue is one of several regional variants within the AOF system, distinguished by the territorial overprint.
De La Nézière designed the original stamp series, not the cardboard backing — a distinction that matters when attributing the "note" itself. Froment's involvement was in the engraving of the stamp intaglio plates.