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1000 Francs
| Issuer | Banque de la Martinique |
|---|---|
| Year | 1942 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 1000 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 | Red-brown on light green and multicolour underprint, consistent with the obverse colour scheme. An allegorical vignette occupies the centre of the composition, surrounded by intricate guilloche patterning worked into the underprint field. The legal warning inscription referencing Article 139 of the Penal Code is placed within the design. |
| Reverse lettering | BANQUE DE LA MARTINIQUE 1000 L'ARTICLE 139 DU CODE PÉNAL PUNIT DES TRAVAUX FORCÉS À PERPÉTUITÉ LE CONTREFACTEUR American Bank Note Company. (Translation: Bank of Martinique - Article 139 of the Penal Code punishes the counterfeiter with forced labour in perpetuity) |
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| Comments |
The Banque de la Martinique occupied an awkward political position during the early 1940s. Following the Fall of France in 1940, Martinique came under Vichy administration, and the island's financial institutions were effectively cut off from metropolitan France and from their usual European suppliers. The ABNC contract was a wartime workaround — New York was reachable; Paris was not.
The P#21 is the high-denomination note of a series printed under those constrained circumstances, and its American manufacture was not advertised. Notes printed by ABNC for French colonial issuers during this period often show the company's characteristic fine-line lathe work in the borders.