Catalog
20 Francs
| Issuer | Banque d'État du Maroc |
|---|---|
| Year | 1943 |
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| Composition | Paper |
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| Obverse description | Central vignette presents an intaglio rendering of a Moroccan kasbah or fortified hilltop town, executed in red-brown on a pale ground, framed by guilloche borders in blue. The bank title BANQUE D'ÉTAT DU MAROC arches across the upper portion, with the numeral 20 appearing in large blue figures at left and right. The legend VINGT FRANCS is set in bold letterpress along the lower margin, with the designer's credit C. P. JOSSO DEL. at the lower left. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse carries a panoramic intaglio vignette of a Moroccan medina cityscape in red-brown, with minarets and densely packed rooftops extending across the central field. The Arabic inscription of the bank name and denomination appears in bold blue script above the vignette, with two manuscript signatures below, attributed to the Directeur Général and the Administrateur. An Arabic anti-counterfeiting legend runs along the lower border, and the note value numeral 20 is placed in the upper-left corner within a decorative cartouche. |
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| Comments |
The Banque d'État du Maroc was a Franco-Moroccan institution with a peculiar legal status — technically a private bank operating under international treaty obligations dating from the 1906 Act of Algeciras, which gave it sole right of note issue in the French Protectorate. The 1943 date places this note squarely in the Vichy-to-Allied transition period, when Morocco's monetary arrangements continued largely uninterrupted despite the November 1942 Allied landings.
Josso was a prolific designer for the Banque de France's engraving workshops, responsible for multiple colonial and metropolitan issues of the period. Printing remained in Paris even as the political situation in North Africa shifted rapidly beneath it.