Catalog
100 Francs
| Issuer | Caisse Centrale de la France Libre |
|---|---|
| Year | 1941 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Green intaglio on yellow underprint. The central vignette is composed of a group of maritime and mercantile implements including an anchor, barrel, and bale, arranged as an allegorical still life. The face bears the issuing authority's name and a full anti-counterfeiting legal warning in French. |
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| Variants | P#13a - issued note P#13s - specimen, punch hole cancelled |
| Comments |
The Caisse Centrale de la France Libre was established by de Gaulle's Free French administration in 1941 specifically to give the movement a functioning financial instrument — without it, French territories that rallied to London had no legitimate currency authority separate from Vichy or the occupying Germans. This note was among the first issues.
Edmund Dulac, the Franco-British illustrator better known for book illustration and postage stamp design, was brought in by the Free French London circle. Bradbury Wilkinson handled the security printing. The combination was deliberately chosen to produce something that looked authoritative rather than improvised — credibility on paper mattered enormously when the issuing body controlled almost no physical territory.
Pick lists this as P#13 within a series that spans multiple denominations produced under the same 1941 authorization.