20 Dollars / 20 Piastres

The Banque de l'Indo-Chine held a monopoly on note issue across French colonial Southeast Asia from its founding in 1875, renewed periodically under direct pressure from Paris. This 1898 plate design was engraved by Charles Wullschleger for the Parisian firm Giesecke & Devrient's French operations — an unusual pairing of German technical expertise with French colonial finance. Bramtot was a Prix de Rome laureate whose work appeared on French state bonds; Duval handled the ornamental engraving. Their collaboration on this series was a deliberate elevation of the note's aesthetic authority in markets where Chinese merchant networks still preferred silver coin.