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1000 Francs with date
| Issuer | Banque de l'Indochine |
|---|---|
| Year | 1943-1944 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | BANQUE DE L'INDOCHINE NOUMÉA EMISSION 1944 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 1000 LE DIRECTEUR DE LA SUCURSALE. UN FONDE DE POUVOIRS. (Translation: Bank of Indochina Noumea 1944 Issue Article 139 of the Penal Code punishes by forced labor those who have counterfeited or falsified banknotes authorized by law. Thousand Francs. The Director of the Branch. An Authorized Representative.) |
| Reverse description | Printed entirely in blue, the reverse carries a large intaglio vignette of Vietnamese laborers in conical hats transporting goods suspended from shoulder yokes, set against a riverside landscape. The place name NOUMÉA is overprinted at upper left, while Chinese characters reading 東方匯理銀行 (Banque de l'Indochine) appear at right alongside the large numeral '1000' and the denomination 'Mille Francs'. The original Chinese text blocks visible on the parent French Indochina note have been obliterated with black overprints. |
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| Comments |
Banque de l'Indochine's wartime 1000 Francs presents an unusual production situation: the notes were printed in New York by the American Bank Note Company at a time when metropolitan France was under German occupation and the colonial administration in Indochina was operating under Japanese military supervision. The Free French authorities, working from exile, contracted ABNC to maintain currency supply for territories they hoped to reclaim.
Practical distribution was the real problem. Notes printed in New York had limited means of reaching occupied Indochina, and substantial quantities never entered circulation there at all. Surviving examples in genuinely circulated condition are considerably scarcer than their uncirculated counterparts.