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100 Piastres
| Issuer | Banque de l'Indochine |
|---|---|
| Year | 1903-1907 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | DÉCRETS DES 21 JANVIER 1875, 20 FÉVRIER 1888 ET 16 MAI 1900 BANQUE DE L'INDO-CHINE SAÏGON CENT PIASTRES CENT PIASTRES PAYABLE PAYABLE EN ESPÈCES AU PORTEUR EN ESPÈCES AU PORTEUR A. BRAMTOT & G. DUVAL FEC. J. ROBERT SC. |
| Reverse description | The reverse is printed entirely in Chinese characters on a light grey guilloche underprint, arranged in vertical columns within decorative cartouches. The central field contains a large circular void framed by intricate scrollwork, with denomination and bank name inscriptions distributed across the surrounding panels. The text identifies the Banque de l'Indochine (東方滙理銀行) and specifies the note's value of one hundred piastres, with additional imperial decree references rendered in classical Chinese script. |
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| Comments |
The Banque de l'Indochine's 100 Piastres series was printed by the Imprimerie de la Banque de France — a relationship that gave the colonial issuer access to some of the finest intaglio work produced anywhere in the world at the time. Bramtot was a Prix de Rome winner whose allegorical work appeared frequently on French state commissions; his involvement here was not unusual, but it elevated the note considerably above typical colonial paper of the period.
The piastre at this date was pegged to silver, and the 1903–1907 window covers a period of genuine monetary instability as France debated whether to shift Indochinese currency toward a gold-exchange standard — a transition that eventually came in 1930.