Catalog
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| Issuer | Banque de la Guadeloupe |
|---|---|
| Year | 1920-1925 |
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| Engraver(s) | Émile Crosbie |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | BANQUE de la GUADELOUPE IL SERA PAYE EN ESPÈCE, A VUE, AU PORTEUR CENT FRANCS. CORNOUAILLES FECIT. (Translation: Bank of Guadeloupe will pay in cash to bearer Hundred Francs) |
| Reverse description | Printed in blue, the reverse presents a central vignette of a small vessel among tropical flowers, flanked on either side by banana and coconut palms rendered in fine engraved line work. An aerial cartographic view of an island forms the background composition. |
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| Comments |
The Banque de la Guadeloupe was one of the colonial privileged banks established under French law, operating as the note-issuing authority for the island rather than any branch of the Banque de France. These institutions held a precarious status — privately capitalized but publicly mandated — and the 1920s were particularly difficult years, with post-war inflation straining colonial monetary arrangements across the French Antilles.
Crosbie's engraving work appears across several French colonial series of this period, often from plates shared or adapted between the Antillean issuers. Whether the Guadeloupe plates were purpose-cut or derived from a common colonial design stock is worth investigating before attributing any unique artistic intent to this specific note.