1000 Francs B.I.C overprint

The B.I.C. overprint on this note was applied to distinguish issues specifically attributed to the Banque de l'Indo-Chine from the broader Banque de France production run — a bureaucratic necessity as wartime Vichy-administered Indochina maintained a nominally separate currency apparatus from metropolitan France. Jonas designed the original plate before the war; Beltrand's engraving work for the Banque de France was among the finest intaglio production of the period.

The 1943 dating places this squarely within Japanese occupation, when the B.I.C. continued operating under close surveillance from Tokyo-backed authorities until the March 1945 Japanese coup de force eliminated French administrative control entirely.