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1000 Francs

Issuer Caisse Centrale de la France d'Outre-Mer
Year 1944
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Size 185 × 112 mm
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Reverse description Blue on orange underprint. A symmetrical landscape vignette occupies the lower half, contrasting a war-ravaged scene on the left — bare, broken trees and ruined structures — with a peaceful rural homestead and agricultural cart on the right, separated by the large numeral "1000" at center. The issuer's title is inscribed in two lines at the top, above a legal warning text in italic script.
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Variants P#19a - black serial #
P#19s1 - specimen, overprinted: SPÉCIMEN
P#19s2 - specimen, overprinted and perforated: SPÉCIMEN, red serial #
Comments

The Caisse Centrale de la France d'Outre-Mer was created by de Gaulle's provisional government in 1941 specifically to provide a parallel monetary infrastructure for French territories liberated from Vichy control. These 1944 notes were produced by Bradbury Wilkinson in London as part of that wartime reconfiguration — currency as an instrument of political reconstitution as much as anything else.

Edmund Dulac's involvement is worth noting. The Franco-British illustrator, better known for his Orientalist book illustration work, contributed to several Allied wartime currency and stamp commissions. His hand gives this series an aesthetic distinctly unlike the Banque de France's pre-war academic engraving tradition.