10 Cents Pattern

In 1945, Banque de l'Indochine was operating in an extraordinarily unstable environment — Japan had seized direct administrative control of French Indochina in March of that year, dismantling the Vichy French colonial apparatus in a matter of hours. Pattern pieces from this period reflect aborted attempts to maintain a functioning monetary infrastructure under conditions that made actual circulation essentially impossible. Whether this aluminium essai was prepared under French authority or in anticipation of a post-Japanese restoration remains genuinely unclear from surviving documentation.

The Lec#183c variety designation suggests a die or compositional variant within an already narrow pattern series.