Catalog
100 Francs
| Issuer | Banque du Commerce, Geneva |
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| Year | 1874 |
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| Currency | Franc (1848-1906) |
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| Obverse description | Intricate letterpress design enclosed within an ornate oval guilloche border with scrollwork corner pieces and two oval cartouches bearing the series letter and serial number. At the top centre, a crowned heraldic vignette with sunburst radiates above the bank title BANQUE DU COMMERCE; at the lower centre, a small industrial vignette shows a steamship and machinery within a decorative frame. A large guilloché underprint numeral 100 fills the centre field behind the denomination text CENT FRANCS, flanked by a circular counterfoil seal at left bearing the forgery warning and a circular bank stamp at right reading BANQUE DU COMMERCE GENÈVE; three manuscript signatures appear below the creation date. |
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| Obverse lettering | BANQUE DU COMMERCE. IL SERA PAYÉ EN ESPÈCES, A VUE, AU PORTEUR. cent francs. Création du 5 Janvier 1874. GENEVE. Série M. L'Régent, L'Censeur, L'Directeur. LA LOI PUNIT LE CONTREFACTEUR DES TRAVAUX FORCÉS. BANQUE DU COMMERCE GENÈVE. |
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| Comments |
Giesecke & Devrient's involvement here is worth noting — by 1874 the Leipzig firm was still consolidating its reputation as a European security printer, and commissions from private Swiss cantonal banks formed a meaningful part of that early portfolio. The Banque du Commerce was a Geneva commercial bank operating in a Swiss monetary environment that would not achieve full federal consolidation until the Swiss National Bank's founding in 1907, meaning private institutions still issued their own notes well into this period.
Collector availability is limited. The Banque du Commerce never achieved the note circulation volumes of the larger cantonal institutions, and survival rates for high-denomination private Swiss issues from this decade are correspondingly low.