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100 Francs Without decrees
| Issuer | Banque de l'Indo-Chine |
|---|---|
| Year | 1920 |
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| Engraver(s) | Charles Wullschleger |
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| Obverse description | Brown intaglio print on plain paper with black serial numbers. Central vignette presents two reclining allegorical female figures flanking a composition with an ox (Bos taurus) and tiger (Panthera tigris) at the lower margin, with elephant-motif columns forming the lateral borders. Trilingual inscriptions appear in French, Arabic, and Amharic, with the denomination expressed in all three scripts alongside the issuing authority and place-date of issue. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Brown letterpress print on an overall guilloche underprint composed of dense repeating "BANQUE DE L'INDO-CHINE" microtext bands forming the horizontal and vertical fields. A large open circle occupies the centre, framed by an intricate guilloche border, with decorative squared panels at each corner containing the penal code warning legend in rotated orientation. The lateral margins carry vertical repeating bank-name strips, creating a symmetrical typographic pattern across the entire reverse. |
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| Comments |
The Banque de l'Indo-Chine 100 Francs series predates the formal decree framework that would govern later colonial issues — hence the "without decrees" designation, which reflects the authorization structure rather than any deficiency in the note itself. Bramtot and Duval's designs were executed by Wullschleger at the Banque de France's printing works in Paris, giving the note a quality of intaglio finish rarely matched by colonial-issue contemporaries.
Surviving examples in any grade are genuinely uncommon. The 1920 dating places production in the immediate postwar period, when shipping disruptions between France and Indochina meant distribution was slow and uneven.