Catalog
100 Francs
| Issuer | Banque de l'Indochine |
|---|---|
| Year | 1945 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 100 Francs |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Printed in brown and green, the reverse carries a vignette of the four-faced Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara as rendered on the Bayon Temple towers at Angkor, Cambodia, a recurring motif in Banque de l'Indochine issues of this period. The denomination and issuing bank name appear in the surrounding text. |
| Reverse lettering | BANQUE DE L`INDOCHINE CENT 100 FRANCS NOUMÉA (Translation: Bank of Indochina Hundred Francs Noumea) |
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| Comments |
The Banque de l'Indochine 100 Francs of 1945 is one of the more geographically unlikely notes in the French colonial series. With Japanese forces occupying Indochina and metropolitan France unable to supply currency, the Allied-aligned administration turned to Australia. The Note Printing Branch in Melbourne produced the issue — a colonial French bank note rolling off Australian government presses is not a combination that recurs anywhere else in the catalog.
Distribution was complicated by the war's final months and the political chaos that followed Japan's August 1945 surrender. Many of these notes arrived in-territory only as the French were scrambling to reassert control against the Viet Minh.