Catalog
10 Cents
| Issuer | Banque de l'Indo-Chine |
|---|---|
| Year | 1920-1923 |
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| Printer | Imprimerie Chaix, Paris, France (1845-1965) |
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| Obverse description | The note is framed by an ornate engraved border with pilasters at each corner and a decorative architectural pediment at top centre flanked by two confronted dragons. The central field carries the large denomination numeral '10 CENTS' in bold letterpress, with the payability clause below and two facsimile signature lines for 'Un Administrateur' and 'Le Directeur'. Red alphanumeric serial numbers appear twice in the upper and lower margins, with the designer's name 'G. FRAIPONT' inscribed at lower left. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | BANQUE DE L'INDO-CHINE 10 CENTS PAYABLES AU PORTEUR EN INDO-CHINE EN ESPÈCES G. FRAIPONT. |
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| Comments |
Banque de l'Indo-Chine issued fractional centimes notes like this one to address a chronic small-change shortage across French Indochina — a problem that had plagued the colony for decades and worsened sharply after World War One disrupted metal supplies. The 10 centimes denomination was essentially emergency fiduciary paper filling the gap left by absent bronze coinage.
Imprimerie Chaix was primarily a commercial and poster printer, best known for its Belle Époque railway and travel lithography. Gustave Fraipont worked extensively in that same advertising tradition, which makes this a genuinely unusual pairing of commercial illustrators with colonial currency production rather than a specialist security printing house.