Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
1000 Francs
| Issuer | Banque de l'Indochine |
|---|---|
| Year | 1954 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 1000 Francs (1000 XPF) |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | BANQUE DE L`INDOCHINE PAPEETE Emission 1954 L`article 139 du Code Pénal punit des travaux forcés ceux qui auront contrefait ou falsifié les billets de banques autorisées par la loi. MILLE FRANCS TAHITI 1000 (Translation: Bank of Indochina Papeete 1954 Issue Article 139 of the Penal Code punished by forced labor perpetuity of those who have counterfeit or falsified these vouchers as well as those who have made use of these vouchers counterfeit or falsified. Thousand Francs Tahiti) |
| Reverse description | Printed entirely in blue, the reverse carries a large central vignette of Vietnamese coolies wearing conical hats and carrying suspended baskets on shoulder poles, set against a river landscape rendered in fine intaglio engraving. A geometric guilloche border frames the composition, with Chinese characters forming a vertical panel at right and the overprint text ĐỒNG VÀNG visible at upper center. The overprint legends PAPEETE, FRANCS MILLE, and TAHITI appear in bold letterpress at upper center and right. |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
By 1954, Banque de l'Indochine's days as a viable currency authority across French Indochina were effectively over. The Geneva Accords signed that July partitioned Vietnam, and within a year the piastre would be replaced by separate national currencies in each successor state. This 1000 Franc note was printed against a political clock that had nearly run out.
American Bank Note Company had handled high-denomination Indochina issues going back decades, and the relationship outlasted French political control of the region. ABNC's New York facility produced this note even as the issuing bank's operational territory was collapsing around it.