Catalog
20 Francs
| Issuer | Banque de l'Indochine |
|---|---|
| Year | 1945 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | 162 × 64 mm |
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| Obverse description | Green on pale underprint. At left, a female figure with wreath; at center, a sailing boat vignette; at right, a native fisherman. A red oval overprint inscribed NOUVELLES HÉBRIDES FRANCE LIBRE, incorporating a palm tree motif and the Cross of Lorraine, was applied to the base New Caledonia note (P-49). |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Printed in green and yellow, the reverse is dominated by a large central vignette of a stylized native mask rendered in fine intaglio line work, flanked on either side by tall guilloche-bordered columns. The denomination VINGT 20 FRANCS appears to the left, with the anti-counterfeiting legal warning text in a panel to the right, and BANQUE DE L'INDOCHINE and NOUMÉA inscribed in the upper and lower border panels respectively. |
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| Comments |
Banque de l'Indochine's wartime operations created genuine logistical nightmares for currency supply. With French Indochina under Japanese occupation and metropolitan France itself occupied, the bank's normal printing arrangements through European firms were impossible to maintain. The Commonwealth Bank of Australia's Note Printing Branch stepped in as the practical solution, producing this series for the Free French administration.
The Australian connection is often overlooked. Melbourne-produced Indochinese francs represent an unusual moment when Allied printing infrastructure was redirected to colonial monetary needs — a decision driven entirely by geography and wartime necessity rather than any established relationship between the two institutions.