The "griffe bleue" — blue claw — designation refers to the distinctive blue-ink cancellation stamp applied to notes withdrawn from circulation, a practice the Banque de France used throughout much of the nineteenth century to formally invalidate returned notes before archiving or destruction. Examples carrying that stamp intact are effectively cancelled specimens; uncancelled survivors from this 1862-1866 emission are considerably rarer and command corresponding attention.
Jacques-Jean Barre was the Graveur Général de la Monnaie des Médailles — the top engraving post in France — and died in 1855, meaning the plates he produced were already in use posthumously for this series. His son Albert took the post and continued under the same institutional arrangements.
The "griffe bleue" — blue claw — designation refers to the distinctive blue-ink cancellation stamp applied to notes withdrawn from circulation, a practice the Banque de France used throughout much of the nineteenth century to formally invalidate returned notes before archiving or destruction. Examples carrying that stamp intact are effectively cancelled specimens; uncancelled survivors from this 1862-1866 emission are considerably rarer and command corresponding attention.
Jacques-Jean Barre was the Graveur Général de la Monnaie des Médailles — the top engraving post in France — and died in 1855, meaning the plates he produced were already in use posthumously for this series. His son Albert took the post and continued under the same institutional arrangements.