Catalog
100 Francs
| Issuer | Banque de Madagascar |
|---|---|
| Year | 1928-1950 |
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| Printer | Banque de France, France |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | BANQUE DE MADAGASCAR 100 Le Contròleur Général Le Directeur Général CENT FRANCS H. CAYON DEL. E. GASPÉ SC (Translation: BANK OF MADAGASCAR 100 General Controller (signature) General Director (signature) ONE HUNDRED FRANCS) |
| Reverse description | Central vignette engraved by Ernest Deloche after Henri Cayon's design, showing a herdsman at right wearing a wide-brimmed hat and holding a staff, posed beside two zebu cattle resting in the foreground. In the left background, a secondary pastoral scene shows additional drovers with a moving herd, all set within an ornate geometric guilloche border. The denomination numeral "100" appears in red at upper left. |
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| Comments |
The Banque de Madagascar was established in 1925 as the island's sole note-issuing authority, replacing the earlier role played by the Banque de France directly. This 100 Francs note spans a remarkably long issue window — over two decades — during which Madagascar remained under French colonial administration through the turbulence of the Second World War, including the 1942 British invasion of the island and the subsequent Free French takeover.
Gaspérini and Deloche were both staff engravers at the Banque de France's printing works in Paris, and their division of labor across obverse and reverse was typical of how that institution allocated engraving responsibility on colonial issues during the interwar period.