Catalog
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!
| Issuer | Banque de l'Afrique Occidentale |
|---|---|
| Year | 1905 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Franc (1900-1962) |
| 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 | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | BANQUE DE L'AFRIQUE OCCIDENTALE Cent Francs PAYABLES EN ESPÈCES, À VUE, AU PORTEUR SAINT-LOUIS 16 Octobre 1905 Un Administrateur Le Directeur Le Caissier 100 |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Hexagonal watermark visible at centre of both obverse and reverse |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
The Banque de l'Afrique Occidentale held a monopoly on currency issue across French West Africa from its founding in 1901, replacing a patchwork of commercial house scrip and metropolitan coin that had made trade across the region genuinely chaotic. This 1905 note is among the earliest issues from that mandate — the bank was barely four years old when it was printed.
Ernest et Frédéric Florian were a Paris security printing firm active in the early twentieth century but far less documented than contemporaries like Bradbury Wilkinson or the Imprimerie Nationale. Duval's engraving work on this series is competent but the printer's relative obscurity makes attribution questions on later reprints harder to resolve cleanly.
The Pick unlisted status suggests extremely limited surviving examples — or none previously recorded in major collections at the time the catalog was compiled.