Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
100 Francs
| Issuer | Banque Cantonale Neuchâteloise |
|---|---|
| Year | 1878 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Printed entirely in blue on cream paper, the obverse carries a central panoramic vignette of the town of Neuchâtel along the lakeside at the top centre, flanked by serial number and series cartouches. Two oval side vignettes frame the composition: at left, a grape-harvest scene with figures at barrels amid foliage, and at right, a figure seated at a watchmaker's or lacemaker's workbench by a window, both enclosed in ornate guilloche surrounds. The denomination "cent francs." is set in large bold script at centre, above three manuscript signatures for the Contrôleur, Caissier, and Directeur, with a decorative central cartouche below bearing the creation date and place within an industrial vignette including a locomotive. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse is a mirror-image impression of the obverse design, printed in blue, resulting from ink set-off through the paper. The same panoramic town vignette appears at top centre in reverse, with the two oval side vignettes — the watchmaker's scene at left and the harvest scene at right — likewise reversed. The central text "cent francs." and the bank name appear in mirror script, as do the three signature lines and the lower central date cartouche with locomotive motif, confirming the single-sided letterpress printing technique of the period. |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
The Banque Cantonale Neuchâteloise was one of several Swiss cantonal banks empowered to issue their own notes before federal centralization — a process that dragged on until the Swiss National Bank finally absorbed cantonal note-issuing rights in 1910. This 1878 issue predates the major consolidation debates by a decade, placing it firmly in the period when cantonal institutions still operated with genuine monetary independence.
P#S408 is catalogued in the Specialized series precisely because it never circulated nationally — its validity was confined to Neuchâtel. Surviving examples in any condition are uncommon; regional Swiss cantonal paper of this vintage rarely escaped the redemption furnace intact.