1000 Francs F.C. overprint

This note's origins lie in a pragmatic wartime compromise. With the Japanese occupation of Indochina severing normal supply chains, the Banque de l'Indo-Chine turned to the Banque de France to produce currency on its behalf — the "F.C." overprint standing for *francs* in the colonial accounting system, distinguishing these notes from metropolitan French franc instruments.

Beltrand was among the finest intaglio engravers working in Paris during the interwar period, and his contribution here is technically accomplished, though the overprint itself was applied as an afterthought under occupation conditions — hardly the circumstances either institution would have chosen.