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100 Francs - Descartes type 1942
| Issuer | Banque de France |
|---|---|
| Year | 1942-1945 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 100 Francs |
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| Obverse description | Central vignette shows René Descartes seated to the right, holding a compass, rendered in intaglio. Behind him stands Clio, the muse of History, clasping a large open book. An hourglass is also present in the composition, underscoring the allegorical theme of knowledge and time. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | 100 BANQUE DE FRANCE 100 CENT FRANCS |
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| Comments |
The Descartes 100 Francs was introduced under the Vichy regime and remained in circulation through the Liberation, a span that gave the series unusual political baggage for a note ostensibly honoring a seventeenth-century philosopher. Production was handled entirely in-house at the Banque de France's Paris workshops — a deliberate policy of the occupied period, when sending work abroad was neither practical nor politically permissible.
Jonas, better known as a war poster artist from 1914–18, brought an illustrator's sensibility rather than a classically trained engraver's hand. The actual plate work fell to Deloche and Clément, whose names in the margins are the more reliable guide to print quality.
The series ran to very high print volumes given wartime inflationary pressure, which keeps circulated survivors common. Pick 101 in genuinely uncirculated state is harder than the grade distribution suggests.